


howl

by sterydia



Series: Wolves of Beacon Hills [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, BAMF Lydia Martin, BAMF Stiles, Bitten AU, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Creeper Peter, F/M, Mild Gore, Minor Canonical Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sexual Content, Underage Sex, Warning: Kate Argent, Werewolves Turn Into Actual Wolves, just about everyone is a werewolf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 20:43:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4363532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sterydia/pseuds/sterydia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia Martin is special; the first female to survive the bite. But she wants her freedom from her pack, and has something of a normal life until an Omega in Beacon Hills dropping bodies pulls her back to her pack and her life before. Back to Derek. Going home isn't going to be easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	howl

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, my first Teen Wolf fic is done and in the bag! But I didn't do this alone! I'd like to thank the following people:  
>   
> [qafmanaic](http://qafmanaic.livejournal.com) for the wonderful soundtrack and divider you'll be seeing throughout the fic! See her post [on Livejournal](http://qafmaniac.livejournal.com/245250.html) or [Dreamwidth](http://qafmaniac.dreamwidth.org/317240.html)
> 
> [theron09](http://theron09.livejournal.com) for being a rockstar beta and essentially saving this fic after my original beta backed out.
> 
> Also, the super talented [tinderbox210](http://tinderbox210) made the gorgeous banner you see at the beginning of the fic!
> 
> Lastly, thanks to the mods at [teenwolfbigbang](http://teenwolfbigbang.livejournal.com) for running this challenge that I almost didn't finish!
> 
> I hope you enjoy my fic! Feedback would be amazing! ♥

  
  
banner credit: tinderbox210  


For once in her life, Kara Simmons wished that she'd been on the track team instead of the swim team in high school. She was running blindly through the woods, tripping and stumbling, grabbing onto tree trunks for purchase. It was too dark to see much of anything besides the dark shadows. Her eye briefly caught on a reddish glint, and she covered her mouth to keep the sob in before she turned and ran again.

There were no wolves in that part of California, everyone had said so, despite the whispers of a few of them being spotted in the Preserve. Which she was currently running through. Being chased by something that couldn't be mistaken for anything but a wolf. Kara tripped again, scraping her knees in the dirt. She had to get out of there, she had to tell people that there was something wrong with this wolf. Because it hadn't been a wolf at first. She'd watched this man... shift... into a wolf right before her eyes, no other warning than him telling her that she better start running.

The scream building in her throat died when she heard the growl behind her. Kara stayed on her knees, hunched over and shaking. A part of her hoped if she was still enough, it would just leave. But the growls got louder, and she could practically feel its breath hot on the back of her neck. She took a chance, scrambling to her feet and trying to run. She had no idea how long she had been out there, how far she was from the road. There was a house out there, but she had no idea what direction it was in. All she could do was run.

She didn't make it very far. Something heavy slammed into her back, sending her toppling to the ground. Skin tore from her palms and she was pretty sure that she twisted her ankle, not that it mattered. She was still alive for the moment; that was what mattered. Rolling onto her back, she found herself face to face with the wolf. Forcing herself not to scream, Kara swore that the damn thing was grinning at her as it licked its chops. Crab walking backwards across the dead leaves, she watched as it stalked closer to her, taking slow steps. It was teasing her, she realized, as she bumped up against a tree trunk. This was some kind of sick game to it, and she was on the losing end.

Kara's breath shuddered out of her shakily as she watched it come closer, one large paw pressing down on her swollen ankle and tearing a scream from her throat. If she tried to hit it, or push it away, it would just rip her hand off. She was dead either way; she didn't want to accept it, but she knew that this wolf intended to kill her.

The last thing Kara Simmons saw before the wolf tore her throat out was its glowing red eyes.

She could feel it as soon as she stepped into the bathroom to get ready; it felt like something was moving beneath her skin. Lydia Martin slumped against the door, and not for the first time, cursed her life.

When she saw her reflection in the mirror, she wasn't surprised to find that her eyes were glowing amber. Squeezing them shut, she counted to ten as another tremor wracked her body. She'd gone too long without shifting, and now the wolf didn't care that she had an important dinner to get to. It wanted out.

Lydia Martin was rare; the first female to survive the bite. There were female, born wolves, like Talia Hale and her daughters Cora and Laura. But there hadn't been a female born wolf in almost two decades, and no human female had ever made it through the change. Until Lydia. She was something of a legend in the wolf community; her name was whispered in reverence among the packs. The infamy wasn’t anything Lydia had wanted, but she had been part of a pack, and it came with the territory, so to speak. Some wanted to know how it was done, how they could keep their human mates forever. But no one knew. Wolves kept trying, and women kept dying. Eventually they stopped in fear of raising body counts high enough to get noticed.

The life she led wasn’t something she’d wanted, but she’d managed to find a kind of peace in it, until she had to kill one too many people to keep her pack’s secrets. Simply killing because she was ordered to, it wasn’t the kind of life she wanted. She demanded space from her pack, and her Alpha had granted it under the condition that she didn’t go far, and that she always come home if she was summoned. It was an order she grudgingly obeyed, even though she could have easily ran to New York or farther. But someone would have tracked her down and drug her back kicking and screaming, because while she might have been the best tracker that her pack had, there were some who weren’t that willing to let her go in the first place.

Lydia found nothing but endless opportunity in Los Angeles, taking a job at a photo gallery and working endlessly on her own portfolio. She’d always loved taking pictures, and on the nights she couldn’t sleep, she’d pull out the photos that she’d taken over the years, of her family. Her apartment was crap; a tiny one bedroom with a view of the luxury hi-rise that was across the street. But it was hers, and she wasn’t tripping over the boys around every turn.

And then there was Jordan; the guy she had been seeing for almost six months. He worked for an ad agency, specializing in things like logo designs for overseas companies that were looking to sell their products in the states. He was funny and charming and Lydia had to admit that she fell for him hard. She found herself imagining a future with him, building a life. It was something she hadn’t done with someone, at least not in a long while. Jordan’s adopted sister Kira adored her, and they’d become the best of friends. Getting on his mother’s good side, though, had proved to be a challenge. But Lydia had expected that, because what mother thought any girl was ever good enough for their only son. Lydia had been through that before, except she’d been accepted without question the last time.

She had hoped that Los Angeles was her chance to start over, try and at least pretend to be human until the time was right to tell Jordan the truth. But the truth has a way of clawing its way out of the hole she tried to hide it in.

“Do you want a glass of wine before we go?” Jordan called from his kitchen. “You know how mom is.”

Lydia was probably going to need more than one glass of wine after this. Her vision had already started changing, and she could feel the itch of her claws beneath her fingernails. There was no way she was going to be able to stop it, at least not much longer. She looked at the dress that she’d bought that morning specifically for the dinner. She’d wanted to impress Moira, but she wasn’t sure how good of an impression shifting into a wolf before dinner would make.

She was going to have to make excuses and ditch out of dinner, because there was no way she was going to be able to get through the night without shifting. When she opened her eyes again, they were green. Nice and human. Lydia’s purse was sitting on the counter and she could see her cell phone sticking out of it. Her mind was already coming up with a plan. Jordan would be disappointed, but he wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Moira, on the other hand, Lydia would probably hear about it the next time they saw each other.

 

Grabbing up her purse and her phone, she keyed out a quick text to one of her co-workers, simply asking them about her schedule next week. She knew that Jordan would never look through her phone, but she knew what it looked like when she came out of the bathroom with her phone in hand, purse dangling from her arm and not wearing her new dress.

 

“I’m so sorry, I’ve been called in to look over a few new acquisitions. My boss isn’t willing to wait until morning.” She said, the regretful look on her face genuine. He frowned, setting the empty wine glasses down on the counter.

 

“Oh,” He looked disappointed, and he let out a resigned sigh. Lydia, not for the first time, hated herself a little. “Well, I’ll tell mom you said hi, and you can always come back here when you get done. I don’t have to go into work early tomorrow.”

 

Lydia pasted a bright smile on her face, catching his chin between her fingers and kissing him soundly. She probably wouldn’t even make it back before morning, she’d spend the whole night running—that way she wouldn’t have to shift again so soon. If her Alpha could only see her now, she would probably never hear the end of it.

 

“I’ll try, but if it’s too late, I’ll probably just crash at my place. I’ll bring breakfast in the morning.” She promised, trying not to crush her cell phone in her hand when she felt another tremor coming on.

 

“Okay, sure.” Jordan said agreeably. It made her want to stay, but she had to go or else she was going to have a lot more explaining to do. She pressed another kiss to his cheek and hastily left the apartment.

 

She probably could have taken the stairs, but Jordan lived on the top floor, and there was no way that she was walking all of those in heels. She caught the elevator before the door could close, smiling politely at the elderly couple from down the hall already inside. The woman asked her what floor, and Lydia told her as evenly as she could before she pressed her back against the wall and closed her eyes. Her hands were pressed behind her back, pinned between her body and the wall, because she could feel her nails lengthening. She didn’t dare open her eyes until the door dinged. It took her a minute to realize that they were in the lobby, and she exhaled before making a quick exit.

 

Finding a place to shift in a hurry wasn’t easy, it never had been. Back at the Preserve, the hardest thing to do was find her clothes after a run, because the place was that massive. It had been one of her favorite places, being able to shift and run freely. She suddenly missed the scent of cedar and pine needles, and the familiar feeling of the pack. All she had now was the smell of exhaust and asphalt, and her heels clicking loudly on the sidewalk as she looked for the first abandoned alley that she could find.

 

The neighborhood was pretty quiet, and she found a spot to slip into, shivering slightly as she kicked off her heels and pulled her sweater over her head. Taking a deep breath, she stopped fighting the shift, and immediately grit her teeth against the first wave of pain that ran through her. Hurriedly she took off the rest of her clothes, tucking them away where she could find them later. Crouching down, a yelp of pain escaped her as her bones began shifting beneath her skin. Gasping for air, Lydia pressed her forehead against the brick wall in front of her, forcing herself to stay still. She could hear her Alpha's voice in her head. If you fight, it will only hurt that much more.

 

Lydia was vaguely aware of the quick, sharp pain of two of her fingernails breaking off as she tried to get a firm grasp on the brick, and she couldn’t help the scream that came out as the wolf started to take hold. Bones cracked and rearranged, teeth elongating and reddish gold fur taking over every inch of bare skin. There were some that said that the shift got easier after the first time, but Lydia had been a wolf for over two years, and each time hurt as much as the last. But there was that tiny moment, as she fully became a wolf, that she felt nothing but freedom.

 

There was a heavily wooded area nearby, where she could run freely without the chance of being seen. Any other time, she might have howled for her pack and signaled to them where she was. But they were too far away to hear it, and she disappeared into the night.

There was a dead body in the Preserve, not too far from the Hale property line. A local girl, throat torn out and body nearly ripped in half, according to the police at the scene. There was no way a human being could do the damage that had been done and they'd already used the word wolf three times. Talia Hale heard all of this from her front porch. Perks of werewolf hearing, she supposed, but it didn't make what was going on out in those woods any better for her pack.

 

Talia had been Alpha since her youngest child had begun middle school. Her husband had been murdered and the role of leading the pack fell to her. At that time it was just herself, her three children, her younger brother Peter and the handful of betas that were scattered around the small town of Beacon Hills. She worked hard to make a good reputation with the other packs; she made alliances and she made enemies, lost pack members and gained new ones. If something were to happen to her, the line of succession would have fallen to her brother. But Peter had been power hungry and had his own agenda, something that had caused him to be excommunicated from the pack and the town. Now, it could be any one of her betas, but Talia was still a strong Alpha.

 

A dead body in the woods meant trouble. It brought attention to her home, to her pack. Police and searches on the property. She knew that no one in her pack would be stupid enough to harm another human. She knew exactly where every member of her pack was at that moment, the closest being Derek and John Stilinski, who was currently pulling up to her house in his police cruiser. Having the sheriff of Beacon Hills in her pack was usually a plus, but judging by the grim look on his face, now might not be one of those times.

 

He got out of the car and walked towards her, carrying what looked to be a Polaroid. A photo of the dead girl. Talia had seen a lot of grisly things over the years, but she had to prepare herself for this one.

 

“John, please tell me that an omega didn't drop a corpse near my property.”

 

“Okay, I won't.” He said, with as much snark as she would have expected from his son Stiles. Talia fixed him with an unimpressed look and he sighed, dragging his fingers through his hair.

 

“She was definitely mauled,” he handed over the Polaroid and she glanced at it briefly. She recognized the girl though she didn't know her name. She'd seen her around town over the years. “The scent is new, freshly bitten probably.”

 

Omegas had no pack, no place to call home. Sometimes a man was bitten and just left to turn on his own. Sometimes he found a pack, other times he turned feral, killing whoever he pleased without an Alpha to answer to. So far there has been just one body, but unless they tracked this Omega down and took care of him, there were going to be more. Lots more.

 

“I see the wheels spinning in your head. Time to pull everyone in?” He asked, sounding almost regretful.

 

Talia's pack was spread all throughout California right now, living their own lives with the condition that they all return home at her say so. Derek, her only son, was still in Beacon Hills, running his own business. Within the pack, he'd served as her enforcer more times that she could count. It wasn't a burden she ever wanted to put on his shoulders, but it was a role he fell into more heavily in the past few years. She was very proud of him, and she knew that his father would have been as well.

 

“We're going to need them here for this.” Talia agreed, pulling her cell phone from the pocket of her sweater. John got a pinched look on his face, scratching at the back of his neck. She already knew what he was thinking. “All of them.”

 

Derek picked up on the second ring, and she quickly explained to him what had happened. Like she'd expected, he'd promised to be home soon. Next, she sent out texts to Cora and Isaac, who were at Stanford. She got the appropriate positive responses from them as well. It wasn't easy to make them drop their classes to come home, but it was necessary. She sent Laura a message, while John sent one to Stiles. It seemed almost pointless, since they were together in San Francisco, but they both had an issue with keeping their phones charged. Like expected, it was Stiles who sent a text back with the affirmative of being back. They really were perfect for one another.

 

“Jackson and Boyd said they could be here within the day. Same with Danny.” John said, glancing up from his phone as another police cruiser came up the road towards them. Haigh was one of those deputies that Talia just didn't like, but she pasted on her best smile.

 

“We still need to call—” She cut John off as she descended the steps, stuffing her cell phone back into her pocket.

 

“And we will. After we deal with your delightful deputy.” She said, patting him on the cheek as she walked by. Even without looking back, she knew that John had rolled his eyes at the idea of Haigh being delightful.

Just when Lydia thought there was nothing that could knock the smile off her face as she was curled up on the couch with Jordan the morning after her shift, the two of them wearing nothing but the fleece blanket that was tossed across the back of the couch, her cell phone decided to prove her wrong.

 

**Message from Talia Hale: Come home.**

 

Lydia closed her eyes briefly, debating even opening the message at all. But this was the deal that she'd made. She could have her freedom, but if Talia asked, she had to go back to Beacon Hills. Talia wasn't a cruel Alpha, she didn't treat her any different from the rest of the pack, no matter how unique she was. And those two simple words seemed to say more than they meant, because the pack had given her space since she left. If Talia was texting her now, something might be wrong.

 

“Who's Talia?” Jordan asked from beside her, and she stared at the phone for a moment longer before setting it back on the coffee table.

 

“She's an old family friend.” It was a lie, mostly. Beacon Hills was a small town, her mother Natalie might have met Talia once or twice before she moved to France with husband number two a few weeks after Lydia graduated high school.

 

“Shouldn't you answer her back?” He questioned, and Lydia could hear it in his tone that he wanted answers, but he didn't want to push her. She liked that about him.

 

“Later,” She turned and snuggled back against his chest. Maybe she could distract him. “Someone promised me breakfast.”

 

“Later.” He shot back, teasing her, dropping a kiss to the corner of her mouth. Lydia smiled and rolled her eyes, winding an arm around his neck. “It could be important, Lydia. Why don't you give her a call, and I'll get the bacon started.”

 

She narrowed her eyes at him, bribing her with bacon was a low blow. Ever since she'd been bitten, her appetite had become more ravenous. She was smart enough to know that it had something to do with her metabolism being faster, and she couldn't really complain too much because being a supernatural shape shifter meant she didn't put on the weight that came with eating as much as she did. Reluctantly, Lydia pulled herself off the couch, plucking Jordan's t-shirt off of the floor and pulling it over her head. She tossed his boxers over to him, smiling in satisfaction when they hit him square in the face.

 

Calling the landline was going to be easier for her, because she knew that she could just leave a message on the ancient answering machine and stretch this out a little longer. Eventually she was going to have to explain more of this to Jordan, but for now she watched him walking around the kitchen in his boxers, cooking her breakfast and giving her fond smiles.

 

“Hello?” Lydia's entire body froze, and the smile that was on her own face slid away when she heard the voice on the other end. Someone had picked up. He had picked up. She said nothing, holding her breath and waiting to see what would happen next. “Hello?”

 

It had been a mistake to call. She should have just sent Talia back a text, letting her know that she had work and she couldn't possibly wiggle out of it. Of course she knew that her boss would let her off if she asked, but that was beside the point. She didn't want to go back to Beacon Hills, and one of the reasons why she didn't happened to have answered the phone.

 

“...Lydia?” Just hearing him say her name made her want to close her eyes and listen to nothing but the sound of his voice. It had only been a year, but it all felt like it had just happened yesterday. Jordan was looking at her in confusion, and she pulled the phone away from her ear as the voice on the other end called her name again. She pressed end call.

 

“No answer, I'm going to try again later.” She assured Jordan as she walked into the kitchen, leaning against the counter. “On second thought, after breakfast, I've got to run an errand. That's okay, right?”

 

“Sure, I've got to go into the office for a little bit anyways. We're taking on a new client this week and some stuff has to get finalized.” He said. That was fine by her, because she was going to get some answers before she had to find out whether she was going back home after all or not.

 

After breakfast, Lydia showered and got ready, walking a few blocks to the animal clinic where Scott McCall worked. She'd known him since high school, though back then she'd had no idea that he was a wolf. And she also knew that he wasn't fooling anyone, finishing veterinary school and moving to Los Angeles to work with Alan Deaton, a close friend of Talia's, purely by coincidence. But he had always been a good friend to her, and he'd taken her side when she'd decided that she wanted to leave home.

 

The little bell over the door jingled as she walked in, balancing two Starbucks cups from across the street. Scott came out of the back, a wide grin on his face.

 

“I heard you from a block away in those heels,” He took one of the cups from her and kissed her cheek. “You're a goddess, Allison broke our coffee pot this morning and I haven't had time to run and get a coffee.”

 

Allison Argent was Scott's girlfriend, his very serious girlfriend who also happened to be human and, like Jordan, had no idea what Scott really was. But she was a sweetheart and Lydia approved of her greatly.

 

“Busy morning?” Lydia wondered as she followed him into the back examination room. She could hear the soft mewls of a few cats in the room where they kept the cages. Lydia wasn't a cat person, even before the bite.

 

“I'm just tying up some loose ends for Deaton before I head home.” He said, looking her in the eye.

 

Of course Scott was going back at Talia's command. He was a loyal pack member. Lydia shouldn't have felt bitter about it, but for some reason she did.

 

“What's going on there that we've all been summoned?” She wondered, perching on a stool and sipping her coffee. Scott, of course, saw right through her fake casualness.

 

“An Omega dropped a body in the Preserve.” He said, and Lydia's eyes widened. It had been a while since she'd heard that word brought up in a casual conversation. Omega. Just a nice word for a mutt without a pack. But she knew what kind of a threat dead bodies could be to her pack, and to Talia's territory.

 

“Don't you get tired of this? Talia says come home, and we have to drop our lives and just do it.” She said. Scott's head tilted to the side almost adorably, but his mouth was a thin line.

 

“You knew what you were getting into when you asked to leave, Lyds.” He reminded her, and anger suddenly flared through her.

 

“I never asked for this, remember? If she asked you to drop Allison, would you do it?” At Scott's sad, silent look Lydia nodded her head. “That's what I thought. You know that an Alpha is stronger with their pack member’s close. That's why none of us can leave California.”

 

That was unfair, and she wanted to take it back as soon as she said it. Talia Hale didn't care about power. Her pack was her family, her life. She would have died for each and every one of them. She was being a little too harsh, and Scott's face told her that he agreed. With a heavy sigh, Lydia flicked her hair over one shoulder and sipped her coffee.

 

“Did you know that Talia was supposed to throw me out of the pack?” Scott said suddenly. Lydia's eyes snapped to his.

 

“What?”

 

“After everything that happened with my dad, when she tossed him out of the pack I should have gone too. Hell, my mom's human and by law she's not even supposed to be involved with us. Once I was born, my dad was supposed to take me and go. But it was Talia's friendship that kept my mom around, not just the fact that we could use a medic in the pack. After dad—after he betrayed Talia the way he did, she came to me and told me I was still family, and mom and I could stay.”

 

Lydia didn't know any of this. Maybe there was a lot that she didn't know about her pack. And maybe there were things she knew that didn't really change anything for her at all.

 

“What could I tell him, Scott? Jordan can't go back with me if I do this.” She said finally. Scott nodded his head, giving her a sympathetic look.

 

“Allison can't go either. I'm going to tell her that John was in a real bad accident and Stiles needs me there,” At Lydia's incredulous look, Scott laughed softly. “Don't look at me like that, it was Stiles' idea!”

 

“Of course it was.” She said dryly. But it was a good idea. She'd briefly mentioned Stiles to Jordan, saying that he was one of her best friends from high school. And Jordan had a new client. Maybe she could make this work.

 

“I'll talk to him tonight.” She said, and Scott nodded his head. They both turned to look as the bell above the door jingled, and then Alan came into the back. He offered Lydia a warm smile.

 

“Hey Dr. Deaton.” She greeted and Allan's smile widened.

 

“By now Lydia, you can call me Alan.” He assured her.

 

“You know I'll just keep on calling your Dr. Deaton, it's a habit.” She said, wiping at a smudge of lipstick on the edge of her coffee cup.

 

“I know you will,” Alan turned his attention to Scott. “Make sure that you tell Talia if she needs me, I'll be there. I'm sure you'll be able to handle this within the pack, but I'm always happy to offer my services.”

 

Alan Deaton was not only a veterinarian, he was an Emissary to the Hale pack. Emissary was kind of a fancy word for witch, but he'd helped a lot over the years. More than a few of his cabinets in the office had herbs and things in them. There was one that neither Scott nor Lydia could open that contained mountain ash, wolfs bane and mistletoe. All three were deadly to wolves, but in times of need, Alan had made them useful.

 

Lydia also suspected that Alan was in love with Talia.

 

Before she even knew what she was doing, Lydia pulled her cell phone out of her purse and sent a text to her boss, requesting time off due to a family emergency.

“Why do you look like someone shot your puppy?” Laura asked by way of greeting as she walked into the living room where Derek was sitting. He glared up at her for a moment before getting up to give her a hug. It had been six months since he'd seen her, and even if she was a pain in the ass, he'd missed her.

 

“Nice to see you too, brat.” He said, tugging none too gently on her red streaked ponytail. Laura growled at him and smacked him away.

 

“C'mon, big brother, spill!” She looked at him in confusion. “Did you know the girl who was killed?”

 

“Lydia called the house phone and I answered.” He confessed and a look of realization crossed her face. She opened her mouth to say something to most likely comfort him or make him feel worse, but Derek cut her off. “Where's your better half?”

 

“I think I resent that, I'm totally the better half.” She said, but she had a fond look on her face.

 

Derek was still baffled by the idea of Laura and Stiles, even after almost five years. They'd been together since Stiles was nineteen, and there was a six year age gap between them. Age didn't really matter to the wolves, not when they had their Alpha's blessing. Stiles might have been a hyperactive spaz and Laura might have had a tendency to be a little brash with anyone she came in contact with, but they worked. Derek still remembered what love felt and looked like, and they were definitely in love.

 

“Sourwolf!” Derek closed his eyes and seriously started to regret his existence as Stiles' voice carried through the large house. Laura grinned to herself, pleased that her nickname for Derek had stuck around through childhood. Stiles came into the room, eyes bright with mischief, and he hugged Derek swiftly before he could protest. “Dude, you look grumpier than usual.”

 

“Lydia called the house phone.” Laura supplied before Derek could get a word in and he narrowed his eyes at her. Stiles gaped at Derek.

 

“Why would you answer?” He asked.

 

“Because the phone was ringing, genius!”

 

“But she—”

 

“Boys,” Talia admonished softly as she came in the room, and both Derek and Stiles fell silent. Laura smiled, rushing over to hug her mother. Stiles muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like kiss ass, and Talia narrowed her eyes at him before patting him on the cheek. “Stiles, you're too thin.”

 

“I'm okay, Mom.” He protested, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

 

Derek smiled faintly when he heard that; like him, Stiles was a born wolf. Only his mother, Claudia, had died during the childbirth of what would have been Stiles' sister. The baby had also died. Stiles had only been eight years old, and neither he nor John had fully recovered from it. John had relied heavily on Talia and Melissa to be motherly influences in Stiles' life. When John and Melissa had married, a few months before Stiles and Scott started high school, everyone in the pack had been thrilled. But it was Talia that Stiles sometimes called mom, and it made her eyes water every time he said it. Because Claudia Stilinski might have been human, but she'd been Talia's friend and Derek knew that Talia thought Claudia would have been proud of the person her son grew up to be; a strong member of the pack.

 

“How close are the others?” Laura asked, perching on the arm of the couch. Talia gave her a pointed look, and she flushed, sliding down to sit on the cushion. Both Stiles and Derek smirked before sitting down on the other side of her.

 

“They should all be back by morning.” She said, and when she looked at Derek with a questioning tilt of her head, he looked at the floor.

 

“Nothing like a freshly turned, psychotic Omega to bring us all together for a family reunion. Awesome!” Stiles said sarcastically.

 

“Not only do we need to find this Omega, we need to find who was stupid enough to turn someone in our territory and just leave them.” Talia said, pacing back and forth in front of her desk.

 

Derek knew the kind of pressure his mother was under; if there was a rogue wolf turning humans just for fun; that meant trouble. Word would spread that Talia Hale had no control over her territory. Others would come to challenge her for Alpha. It would be complete chaos. As her enforcer, Derek could take on any of these challengers in her place, and he would do so without question because he never wanted to think of the possibility of Talia losing her Alpha status or her life in a fight.

 

“Do the cops want to search the property yet? Won't they need a warrant?”

 

“Not with how close the body is to our property line. It doesn't help they're not looking for a human, they're looking for an animal. We have no legal cause to stop them, and if we do, it makes us look guilty. We need to let them do what they're going to do and stay out of their way but that doesn't mean we can't search on our own around them.” Stiles explained.

 

“That actually made sense.” Derek muttered, scowling when Stiles grinned at him like he'd won the lottery.

 

“It's what I get for spending all that time shadowing dad at the station,” He paused, yawning widely, and Talia looked at him with motherly concern. “Is it okay if I take a nap? I drove the whole way.”

 

“Go ahead. I'll make lunch when you wake up.” Talia said, and Stiles got up, Laura trailing behind him up the stairs. “No funny business, you two, I'll make you sleep in the woods!”

 

The smirk on Derek's face faded when he realized that Talia's attention was now completely on him. She walked over and sat down beside him on the couch, staring at him with something close to sympathy.

 

“Are you alright?” She asked. Derek raised an eyebrow, staring at his hands.

 

“Are you asking as my mother, or my Alpha? Because there could be two different answers to that question.” He admitted. Talia narrowed her eyes at him.

 

“Is your head in the game, Derek?” She asked, and he looked up at her just to make sure that she wasn't questioning his loyalty.

 

“Anything my Alpha needs me to do for my pack, I will.” He said confidently. Her gaze softened and she reached out, brushing his fingers across his cheek.

 

“And what about your heart, baby? I know that being under the same roof with her after a year is going to be difficult—”

 

“I'll help you with lunch.” He interrupted, getting up off of the couch and stomping towards the kitchen.

 

He realized that he was acting like a child, but he wasn't exactly one to talk about his feelings. Talia never pushed, but he could still see the look in her eyes like she wanted him to spill all his problems and secrets out before her so she could take them apart and put them back together the right way. He hated himself for wanting to be different, be normal and human so things wouldn't have turned out the way that they did. Because right now he was actually feeling glad that there was a dead body and an Omega that had gone off the rails. Somehow it seemed like a blessing in disguise, like somehow he'd be able to fix everything that he'd broken.

 

It was a delusion, but a nice one nonetheless.

Lydia parked her car at the edge of the Preserve, cutting the engine. She'd left Jordan back in Los Angeles, content with the excuse that her friend's father was in the hospital and she wanted to show her support for Stiles. Jordan and Lydia hadn't been together long enough for him to suggest that he come with her, but she'd seen it in his eyes before she'd left that he'd wanted to. She was glad that he hadn't, because she might not have left.

 

She should have gone right up to the house, but she wanted to see if she could get a lock on the Omega’s scent. If this played out right, she could be out of Beacon Hills before the week was over. She would do whatever was expected of her, whatever she could do to help her pack. She would kill the Omega if that was what Talia wanted, but she was gone when it was done. That was the agreement that she made, and she knew that Talia would stick to that agreement.

 

She got out of the car, popping the trunk and scrounging through her makeup bag until she came across a hair clip. She twisted her hair up and clipped it back from her face, closing her eyes for a moment as the breeze drifted across her skin. The only scent in the air right now was the familiar smell of the trees and the dirt. It made her feel like she was home. Shaking the thought from her head, Lydia slammed the trunk and started into the woods.

 

She probably should have changed her clothes; her thin sweater and skirt weren't protecting her from the chill in the air and her high heels weren't meant for a romp in the forest. But Lydia wasn't about to walk all the way back to her car just for some jeans and boots. Moving lightly on her feet, she followed one of the familiar, well-worn paths that twisted its way through the trees. There were too many scents out there. She would need John to get her to the specific spot of the attack so she could get something clearer.

 

Lydia froze suddenly, every muscle locking in her body when she smelled the familiar scent of burnt cedar. She twisted around just in time to see the large black wolf barreling through the trees, coming to a half in front of her. It stared at her blankly, head tilted to the side. She resisted the urge to run her fingers through its dark fur, instead watching as all that fur melted away and gave way to miles of tan skin. She found herself staring at a very naked Derek Hale. It should have bothered her, but it didn't, and that bothered her more.

 

“Oh my god.” She muttered, spinning around so that her back was to him. “What the hell are you doing out here?”

 

“What does it look like?” Derek asked, and Lydia could hear the smirk in his voice. She heard the telltale sound of him slipping into the clothes, the noise of a zipper being pulled up and a belt being buckled seeming loud in the quiet woods. “Hello to you too, Lydia. Great to see you. I'm decent now, you can turn around.”

 

Lydia hesitantly turned around, her mouth twisting in annoyance when she saw that he wasn't wearing a shirt. The black Henley hung limply in his hands, and he was looking at her with something close to amusement in his hazel eyes.

 

“Are the police supposed to be scouring the woods for a murderous wolf? Why are you out here like that?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and using all of her effort to stare at his face impassively.

 

“You act like I'm going to run up to them and ask them to play fetch.” He said, and her eyes widened when she realized that he was joking with her.

 

“You are unbelievable, Derek Hale! Someone is dead and you're suddenly finding your sense of humor?” She wondered.

 

“You used to think I was funny.” He pointed out, eyebrow raised, and Lydia felt her skin run hot. She used to think a lot of things about him, she started to tell him exactly what she thought of him now, but a howl cut through the trees. Her head whipped around.

 

“Talia's out here too? What are you guys thinking?”

 

She turned and started back down the path that she'd come up, not stumbling once and not looking back to see if Derek was following her. She had to her to her car and get up to the house so that she could talk to Talia. Maybe if she were better dressed, she would have just ran through the woods. Shifting was out of the question; she would only change if she had to.

 

“We were thinking that there was an Omega in our territory that has a taste for human blood, and we weren't even sure if you were coming back.” Derek answered as they reached the edge of the woods where Lydia's car was parked.

 

Lydia spun around to tell him that she'd had no choice but to come back, but Derek kept on walking towards her car. Her eyes traced over the familiar triskelion that was tattooed between his shoulder blades, which he covered up when he pulled on his shirt. He stood by the passenger door expectantly, and she realized that it was locked. Hastily she let him into the car, getting behind the wheel.

 

“Your car smells like someone else. A guy.” Derek said, his voice tight. In any other conversation, this might have sounded weird. But wolves were very keen on scent, and the fact that her car smelt like someone that wasn't pack obviously bothered Derek.

 

The only one who knew about Jordan was Scott. She hadn't even told Talia yet, though she knew that it was bound to come up. There was nothing in their laws that said Lydia couldn't have a human boyfriend if she wanted one. Talia knew about Allison and even though she'd yet to meet her, she'd given Scott her blessing. But Allison was a woman, and Jordan was a man. The only way he'd ever be welcomed into the family, if Lydia chose to tell him the truth, was if he took the bite. And there was a part of her that never imagined that happening.

 

“Your point?” She asked finally, but Derek stayed silent, staring at her with some indescribable look on his face. “Good, let's go. It's been a long drive and I'm exhausted.”

 

The driveway that led to the Hale house was long and winding, and had never been paved with asphalt. The house was as massive as Lydia remembered, with a large, wide clearing beside it that served as a place for everyone to park. Derek's Camaro was parked beside Talia's Toyota and Stiles' ancient Jeep was parked crooked at the end. The sun was sinking down behind the trees, and Lydia had barely put the car in park before Derek was yanking off his seat belt and twisting around to look at her. He looked like he had something to say. Something she probably didn't want to hear. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Talia standing on the front porch, wrapping herself in her favorite sweater. Without a word, Derek got out of the car and stomped across the yard. Lydia huffed, knocking her head back against the headrest and closing her eyes.

 

After a few minutes of mentally preparing herself, yet again, Lydia got out of the car and walked towards the porch. Talia came down the steps, immediately enveloping her in a warm hug. She smelled of roses and vanilla, an all too familiar scent to Lydia even after a year, and she buried her face in Talia's shoulder to try and hide the fact that there were tears in her eyes.

 

“I've missed you, little wolf.” Talia whispered into her hair. The nickname was familiar and not entirely unwelcome.

 

“I've missed you too, Talia.” She said, and she meant it. She smiled and pulled back to look at the older woman, whose eyes were just as watery as hers. She wrapped her arm around Lydia's shoulders, leading her towards the house.

 

“I know my son has missed you as well,” Lydia started to protest that she didn't want to talk about Derek, but Talia kept right talking. “You must be tired. Your room is still yours, why don't you go up and get some rest? Everyone else will have arrived by morning and then we can begin discussing our next move.”

 

It might have sounded like she was suggesting it, but her tone said that she wasn't. But Lydia, surprisingly, had found herself completely willing to take those orders from her Alpha. It put her one step closer to being back in Los Angeles.

The town of Beacon Hills was small enough that it was only a matter of time before the Hale pack figured out who he was and what he was up to. He'd been told about that; not warned because the one who gave him the bite told him to enjoy himself as long as he didn't get caught. And Matt Daehler had spent most of his life hiding behind a camera lens. He was a pro at being inconspicuous.

 

He sat at the bar, fidgeting with his camera and going through the pictures he'd taken. A lot of them were of the female one, Lydia Martin. She was special, according to the one who bit him. Women didn't live through the bite, they hadn't in a long time. Matt could care less about the girl, or the rest of her little pack. He'd accepted the bite with the idea that he would be stronger, faster. He would be able to find the people who had made his life a living hell and he would make them pay. Kara had been the first one on his long list, and he had no problem taking out a few people for his...employer...as well.

 

A girl dropped down on a stool beside him, pretty and blonde, ordering up a beer from the bartender that kept on giving Matt the evil eye. The girl smelled of anxiety and her eyes drifted around the bar before they landed on him. He smiled at her and she smiled back nervously.

 

“Hi.” Matt said, already deciding that she was his next one. This one he wouldn't leave in the woods. Maybe this one he would leave on their front porch, wrapped in a pretty little bow.

 

Her smile seemed to get a little brighter. “Hey.”

 

His fingers twitched along the edge of his camera, finally powering it down. The girl seemed to notice.

 

“Are you a photographer?”

 

“Kind of. I used to take a lot of pictures for the high school newspaper, but now it's just a hobby. I'm Matt.” He said, holding out his hand. She stared at it for a moment, unsure, before she finally reached out and shook it.

 

“I'm Christina.” She said, a small smile still on her face. She didn't smell anxious anymore, in fact, he could tell that she was interested.

 

The bartender slammed the beer bottle down in front of Christina and she jumped a little before narrowing her eyes at him.

 

“And this lovely gentleman is my father, Michael.” She said, and Matt briefly wondered if he wasn't going to be able to have this one. Not with her dad keeping a close eye on her. It was almost like he could sense that there was something off about Matt, and Matt didn't like that.

 

“Nice to meet you, sir.” He said as a politely as he could. If he stared at the man long enough, he could see Coach Lahey's face, glaring at him and telling him the fact that he'd nearly drowned had been his own fault.

 

“Your mother expects you home by midnight.” Michael told Christina and she only rolled her eyes and nodded.

 

Matt almost hated to be the one to bear the bad news that little Christina probably wouldn't be making her curfew. He'd been told to pile up the bodies, put the suspicion on the Hale pack. However he had to do that was on him. This girl wouldn't make that much of a difference after Kara, but he knew something that might. It was something he'd call one of the others in to do, if his idea was accepted. Even he drew the line somewhere, but there were others in his little group that wouldn't mind getting their hands a little bloodier.

 

Christina's attention had been easy to keep. She'd gone to Beacon Hills High school, in the same class as Cameron Lahey's younger brother Isaac, who was a part of the Hale pack. She was attending UCLA and was home on break. Matt feigned interest until he pretended to get a call. He didn't want her father to see him leaving the bar after her, so he hid outside until she was ready to leave.

 

Even with her earlier wariness and her father's dirty looks, it had been easy to get her back to the little apartment that he was renting. It would probably have been easy to get her into bed with him. But he felt the shift coming on so suddenly that there was no time for that. She seemed so surprised as she watched him transform right before her eyes. She had screamed, she tried to run. But the apartment was small and there was no getting out before he was on her, tearing out her throat with his sharp wolf teeth.

 

Her cell phone started ringing at twelve thirty, while Christina Walcott was choking on her own blood. Once Matt shifted back to human, he ripped out the SIM card and flushed it down the toilet. The girl's blood soaked into his carpet while Matt sat on his bed, looking through his photos again.

Derek was standing at the end of the bed, watching her sleep. Maybe she should have found this creepy, but she didn't. Instead, she sat up, pushing her hair out of her face and watching him with expectant eyes.

 

“You shouldn't be in here.” She said quietly, and the corner of his mouth twisted upwards.

 

“Tell me to get out,” he braced both hands on the footboard of the bed, and Lydia realized that he was still wearing the ring. “And I will.”

 

She didn't want him to go. She wanted him to stay, if she was being honest with herself. But being honest with herself when it came to Derek Hale had become quite a problem. He took Lydia's silence as permission to stay, and she swallowed hard as he climbed over the footboard onto the soft mattress. Any other time she might have shoved him out of the bed or yelled at him to leave. Why wasn't she making him leave? Instead, her fingers tangled in the soft fabric of his shirt and she yanked him closer.

 

“What are you doing to me?” She asked as his mouth trailed up the side of her neck. She shivered.

 

“The same thing I've always done. I'm loving you.”

 

“You should stop doing that.” Lydia said as she arched against him. Derek laughed softly, his palm settling on her hip and his fingers sliding beneath the hem of her pajama pants. Lydia's breath caught in her throat.

 

“That's the one thing I've never been able to do. You won't either. You'll never stop loving me, will you?” Derek's fingers dipped lower, and she gasped, her head sinking back into the pillows—

 

“Wow, what kind of dream are you having?” A voice asked from the other side of the bed.

 

Lydia's eyes snapped open and she realized that Derek wasn't in the room at all. The sun wasn't shining nearly as bright as it had been in her dream, and Stiles Stilinski was in the bed beside her. It had been nothing but a dream, one that she didn't understand and wished that she'd never had. Twisting around in the bed, she failed to keep the smile off of her face at the sight of Stiles curled up beneath her comforter, the look on his face something between amusement and morbid curiosity.

 

“Oh my god, Stiles, please tell me you're not naked in my bed!” Lydia squeaked.

 

He grinned at her, lifting up the blanket and looking beneath it. “As fun as that would be, I value my life. I'm decent. Under here. Promise.”

 

Lydia hated to admit to herself that there had been a time when she hadn't even known what the hell a Stiles was. He hadn't even been on her social radar until Jackson dumped her in their sophomore year. She hadn't known it at the time, but he'd accepted the bite and joined up with the Hale pack. But after that Stiles had become a steady presence in her life. He'd happily fallen into the role of best friend, even though he'd had a very public crush on her since the third grade. It eventually mellowed out and he and Laura got together. One of Lydia's regrets had been leaving her best friend behind in Beacon Hills when she ran to Los Angeles.

 

“Why are you in my bed?” She asked in exasperation. Stiles put his head in his palm and propped himself up on his elbow.

 

“Maybe because I haven't seen you in a year, unless you count on a Skype screen, which I do not.” He said, and Lydia felt bad.

 

“You know why I did it.” She argued feebly, and he shrugged.

 

“Doesn't mean I'm gonna take away your best friend crown. I'm just saying. You should come home more. Even if it isn't helping the pack.” He said. Lydia hated that he was right.

 

“I do not have a best friend crown, I have a tiara.” She said, hoping to lighten the suddenly serious mood. Stiles rolled his eyes, and she reached over and shoved him lightly. “If I promise to think about it, will you get out so I can get ready?”

 

“Fine.” He relented, shoving off the covers. She narrowed her eyes at him when she saw that he wasn't wearing much more than his boxers.

 

“Good puppy.” She said with a smile, before shooing him towards the door.

 

“Oh, dog jokes! How original. Isn't that insulting your own kind or something?” He asked, but it was obviously a rhetorical question because he left the bedroom, pulling the door shut behind him as he went.

 

Lydia sighed, flopping back against the pillows. She could hear everyone downstairs; it sounded like the whole pack had finally made it home. Crawling from the bed, she started to prepare herself for the full reunion that she was about to have when she went down there as she walked in the adjoining bathroom to shower. When she came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy towel, she looked mournfully at her high heels that were tossed in the corner, ruined by her trek in the woods the night before, before pulling clothes from the suitcase she hadn't bothered to unpack.

 

The kitchen was the largest room in the house, ever since Talia's husband had knocked down a wall and adjoined the dining room to it. Lydia could remember spending countless hours in that kitchen, before and after she'd been bitten. She could hear the pack before she was even down the stairs. There had been a time when being around them had been a comfort; they were her family, more than her own mother and father. But now she felt nervous. They probably saw her wanting distance and her reluctance to return as a way of pulling away. They could sense that she might have wanted out of the pack. A part of her was scared that they were right.

 

She wasn't surprised to see that the entire kitchen had been completely refurbished, new cabinets and countertops, a tiny breakfast nook, and larger windows let more sun in and make the whole room brighter. The once modestly sized kitchen table had been replaced with a massive seven foot number that smelled of oak and had no doubt been handmade like much of the wooden furniture in the house.

 

The scene in the kitchen was a picture of home, and it squeezed at Lydia's heart. Cora was seated up on the counter—something Talia probably wouldn't approve of—talking animatedly with John, who was at the stove flipping what smelled like his famous caramel apple pancakes. Isaac, Boyd, Danny and Jackson were sitting at the far end of the table, talking about normal things like school and work. Derek was staring sullenly into his coffee mug, pretending to listen to whatever Stiles and Laura were telling him as they sat across from him, sharing one chair. And all of that action stopped and every head turned to look at her when she came farther into the room.

 

John turned and smiled at her, “You're up. I'm making your favorite.”

 

“It all smells great, I'm starving.” She said, accepting the one armed hug he offered as he stepped closer, wary of the hot spatula he held away from them.

 

Cora, who'd always been her toughest critic, even before she'd been bitten, slid off the counter and came over to her. She offered her a somewhat friendly smile, her own hug tentative. “It's good to see you.”

 

Lydia couldn't smell a lie there, and she smiled back in return.

 

Laura and Stiles came to her next, and he made a quip about being able to hug her appropriately now that he had more clothes on. Laura's scent seemed a little off, but Lydia thought maybe that was from her time away. Boyd, quiet as ever, simply waved from his end of the table. Danny offered her a friendly smile, but there was no real love lost between her and Jackson. He simply nodded at her, and she nodded back. And while Stiles was her best friend, Isaac had been her favorite. They'd been bitten around the same time, coming up in the pack together. His father had been a horrible man, often locking his son in a freezer, and Lydia often wondered if someone in the pack had killed him after Isaac had turned. He'd grown confident over the years, able to accept a hug without flinching. He even smiled at her.

 

“No heels?” Scott wondered teasingly as he came into the room.

 

“They got ruined in the woods last night.” She said, hoping she didn't sound petulant about it.

 

Talia came into the room as Cora and John started bringing plates of delicious smelling foods to the table. Lydia sat down in a chair, finding herself sitting across from Derek, who still hadn't talked to or even looked at her since the night before. Cora sat beside him, glaring. Not at Lydia, at Derek. If he felt his younger sister drilling holes into the side of his head with her eyes, he ignored it.

 

“Awkward.” Stiles drawled, reaching over to snatch an apple slice out of the bowl in front of him. Lydia was quicker, and slapped his hand hard.

 

The table was covered with platters and bowls, enough food to feed two armies, and Lydia was confident that they could eat every bite of it. But no one made a move to touch it, all waiting and watching Talia. Even Derek had looked up at her. She reached out and picked up one of the cinnamon buns, tearing off a piece and popping it into her mouth. She chewed slowly, and they all still watched her. Finally, she nodded her head. It was tradition to wait for the Alpha to eat first. It showed respect. And as the table exploded into motion and things were passed around, Lydia realized that she'd been holding her breath.

 

“There's another girl missing.” John said suddenly, and all eyes turned to him. Lydia's fork clattered noisily on her plate. “Another local, home from college. She was seen last night, leaving the bar where her dad works, but then she disappeared.”

 

“Did anyone see her leave with anyone?” Laura wondered.

 

“The only description Haigh got was dark hair, average height.”

 

Stiles snorted. “Stellar police work.”

 

The fact that his sarcasm went unnoticed spoke volumes to Lydia. She had no doubt that this girl that had gone missing wasn't alive any longer. Whoever this Omega was, he had no qualms about tracking someone in a crowd and he was able to blend in without really being noticed. She wondered if the father would be able to give a better description; a man wasn't just going to let his daughter sit at the bar without a guy and not keep an eye on her and said guy.

 

“We should check with the father, see if he knows more.” Derek said, speaking for the first time.

 

“And we should see what kind of scent we can pick up, here and in town. John, can you show me where the girl's body was in the woods?” Lydia asked. The sheriff nodded his head.

 

“That's a good idea. I want you to take Stiles and Derek with you into town when you go, track this mutt down. The chances that there is an Alpha lurking around are high right now, we can't be too careful,” Talia sipped her coffee and Lydia swallowed hard, looking over at Derek. He was looking at his mother, not her. “Danny and Boyd will try to talk with the father. Laura, I need you to meet with Chris Argent as soon as possible. Take Scott and Jackson. Scott, I expect you to be on your best behavior. Unless you're ready to tell Chris that his daughter is dating a werewolf?”

 

The comment was teasing, but Chris Argent was a hunter and though he had an alliance with the Hale pack, there was no doubt that he would put an arrow right through Scott's heart if he felt like it. Even though Allison knew nothing about him being a wolf, she knew that her father was wary and overprotective, which she thought was because she was his only child. Lydia wasn't even sure she knew what her father did. If she did, she hid it very well.

 

“Are you sure you don't want me here, with you? Danny or Isaac could go with Ly—with them.” Derek said, and Lydia fought the urge to roll her eyes. But Talia smiled, and Lydia knew what she was doing. She didn't know if she liked it.

 

“I'd like you to go with Stiles and Lydia, Derek.” She said and though her voice was soft, her tone left no room for argument. Derek ducked his head and nodded.

 

Lydia wanted to argue that she could track the Omega better on her own, but she knew that it would do no good and it would probably be better to have Stiles and Derek at her back if anything were to go wrong. She understood Derek's need to protect his Alpha, but if Talia had her way, Derek would be with Lydia the entire time that she was there.

 

“For now I've suggested that my deputies only search the outlying areas of the property and a certain perimeter in the Preserve. They haven't actually used the word wolf yet because—”

 

“There aren't any wolves in California, right?” Stiles asked with a smirk, popping a grape into his mouth. Lydia rolled her eyes.

 

“—There aren't any wolves in California, but they know that something mauled Kara Simmons in the woods. And Christina Walcott is only reported as missing for now.” John kept talking as if Stiles hadn't spoken.

 

“Do you have an idea who would have been dumb enough to do this? I thought that we were good with the neighboring packs.” Jackson spoke up.

 

Alarm bells started going off in Lydia's head. “Deucalion.”

 

Talia looked down the table at her, and Lydia had no doubt that she'd been thinking the same thing. There had been a time, before Talia had been Alpha that Deucalion had been part of the Hale pack. He'd been close with Derek's father. During that time he'd been blinded by a hunter, something he'd always blamed on Derek's father. And when the role of Alpha fell to Talia, he chose not to stay with the pack.

 

“I wouldn't put this past him. He started his own pack somewhere in Eastern California,” She glanced over at John. “Do what you can to track him down.”

 

“If he's behind this, it's a big play for the territory.” Derek stated the obvious.

 

“He can try. I'm pretty sure we can keep him out.” Boyd said, with a confidence that he rarely showed. Lydia found that she agreed wholeheartedly. The pack together was strong. They'd fight to defend what was theirs.

 

“What time would you like us to meet with Argent?” Laura wondered, twisting a ring on her finger. The engagement had been something Lydia regret missing, even though Stiles told her before anyone else, even Talia. That part made her feel a little better.

 

“As soon as we're done here. We might be able to use his tracking skills for this Alpha once Lydia finds the Omega,” Her gaze swung to Derek. “You remember the spot where John showed you? Why don't you take Lydia there after breakfast so that she see what she can pick up? Familiarize herself with whatever might be out there.”

 

Lydia almost blurted out that she was seeing someone, just to make Talia stop trying to play matchmaker. But she didn't want anyone to know about Jordan yet. It was a dangerous game, keeping secrets from her pack and her Alpha, but she was willing to do so if it meant keeping one thing to herself.

 

“Mom...” Derek trailed off as everyone's heads tilted towards the sound of tires on the road outside. John cursed and tossed his fork down on the table, muttering about someone being early. Lydia could only assume that it was his deputy that no one liked. Talia pushed back her chair and got up, pausing in the doorway to look back.

 

“As soon as he's gone.” She told Derek before leaving the room. Lydia stabbed a piece of pancake with a little too much force, cracking the ceramic plate.

Of all of the rooms in the house, Derek knew exactly where to find Lydia after breakfast. He left Isaac and Boyd doing dishes and Cora and Stiles with clean up duty as he headed down into the basement. That one room spanned the entire length of the house. There were cages behind the stairs, a cabinet full of weapons that were kept under John's lock and key, a small pantry stocked with herbs and medical supplies that Alan Deaton kept well stocked, and a floor to ceiling bookshelves that were filled with dusty old books. Some of those shelves held files on neighboring packs, on their enemies and their allies. That basement held a lot of memories for Derek. And one of the main features of those memories was sitting in an old overstuffed chair, reading through a file that had to be Deucalion's.

 

“If this is your version of stealth, Derek, the Omega is going to have a field day with us.” Lydia said without looking up.

 

A lock of her strawberry blonde hair had fallen out of the messy bun at the nape of her neck, and Derek itched to tuck it back behind her ear. Two years ago, that gesture would have been welcomed. Now, he might have ended up losing a few fingers.

 

“Do you remember that summer we—”

 

“I'm not here to skip down memory lane. I'm going to find this Omega, you're going to rip out his heart and we're going to give it to your mother as a gift. And then I'm going to go back to my life in Los Angeles.” She said, her voice deceptively calm. Derek could hear her heart pounding away in her chest.

 

He crossed his arms over his chest, slouching against the desk that had once been his father's. When it became Lydia's personal mission to read every book in the basement, he used to sit in that exact same spot, watching her until she got distracted enough to go for a run with him.

 

“What else are you going back to?” He asked, uncaring if he sounded jealous. It had been bugging him since the night before, when he'd picked up the scent of the guy in her car.

 

“Tell me what you know about Deucalion's pack.”

 

Before he could speak, the sound of Stiles' sneakers could be heard minutes before he came thundering down the stairs. He looked annoyed, muttering under his breath.

 

“I'm going to shove a steak in Haigh's uniform shirt and tie him to a tree in the woods, you watch me.” He said irritably. The comment brought a small smile to Lydia's face and made Derek roll his eyes.

 

“You've only met him twice since he started working for John. He can't be that bad.” He protested.

 

Stiles' eye twitched. “Say that to me again when you see him checking out your sister's ass.”

 

“I'll get the rope.”

 

“Ahem!” Lydia snapped her fingers loudly. “Someone better start talking to me about Deucalion's pack.”

 

Stiles threw up both of his hands, dropping down on the bottom step, looking at Lydia with fond annoyance. She always had a habit of being able to boss the two of them around without too much protesting and Derek almost hated that that hadn't changed when she left.

 

“Let's see, there's Ennis, whom I've heard that he likes to eat the hearts of his victims and that his human mate Kali is one of the only people he hasn't tried killing. Then there's the wonder twins, Ethan and Aiden, who might as well be one person they spend so much time together. There are a few other lower level betas and it's rumored that they've got their own Emissary. Well, their second. Kali murdered their first one.” Stiles explained.

 

Lydia narrowed her eyes at him. “I can't tell if you were entirely serious or not.”

 

“One of their betas got killed and Ennis really ate his heart.” Derek said. Lydia's nose wrinkled up in a way that he still found adorable.

 

“Okay, forget I asked,” She shuddered and snapped the file closed. “It has to be Deucalion doing this. If not, then who? Any new enemies in the past year?”

 

The truth was it had been relatively quiet since Lydia had left for Los Angeles, after what had happened. The pack scattered throughout California with Talia's permission, all to live their lives, all but Derek, who didn't like the idea of leaving Talia in Beacon Hills without someone to watch her back. She had John, but he couldn't be there as much as Derek could. Things had still been calm, almost normal.

 

“Satomi's pack was here over the summer, but everything was fine. They chose a few new betas, and moved on.” Derek said. Satomi was one of his mother's most trusted allies, and he couldn't think for a second that she would bite someone and then leave them to run amok in town.

 

“Kate was here for a little while.” Stiles said, as if Derek needed reminding. The look on Lydia's face said that she didn't approve at all.

 

“Oh yeah, how is the resident psycho?”

 

Kate Argent was Chris Argent's younger sister, and very much unwelcome in Beacon Hills. Chris had told her that much when she came through, intent on trying to reconnect with her family and with Derek. Neither advance was welcome, not after what had happened, not only with Derek's father but with Lydia. Talia had nearly gone off the deep end when she heard that Kate was back, but she let her live as a courtesy to Chris. That was all.

 

“Gone.” Derek snapped, glaring at Stiles for bringing her up.

 

“And she still won't admit that she helped kill—”

 

“Haigh's leaving. Let's go.” Derek muttered, shoving past Stiles up the stairs.

 

Kate had not, in fact, admitted to helping kill Derek's father. The hunting party that she'd been in, every single one of them had told Derek that she'd been there, right before he killed them. But Kate was still claiming her innocence. And if Derek didn't think that killing her would bring the wrath of Chris Argent down on the pack, she'd be dead already.

“God, it's like being stuck in the car with Dad and Melissa when they're arguing.” Stiles muttered from the backseat and Lydia rolled her eyes.

 

The trek through the woods had been more helpful than Lydia thought, the scent of the Omega still lingering enough for her to pick up on it. Derek had only been having one word conversations since the basement, but that was fine with her. The less they had to talk the better. They were on their way into town, in Derek's Camaro. Lydia had wanted to drive, but Derek had insisted. Rather, he'd gotten into his car and told them to get in or he was leaving them behind.

 

“You're ringing,” Derek turned and looked pointedly at Lydia. “Your cell phone?”

 

Cursing, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She saw Kira's name on the screen and sighed, wondering if she should just let it go to voicemail and call her back later. She could smell the Omega in the night air that filtered into the car, and she told Derek to make a left before pressing 'answer'.

 

“Hey Kira.” She knew that both Derek and Stiles were looking at her in confusion.

 

“Hey! Jordan told me about your trip back home and I thought that you could use some good news right now. Unless you're too busy to talk. Then I can totally call you back later?”

 

“No, it's fine. What's up?”

 

“What would you say if I told you that you would be getting your own gallery viewing? That guy who bought your first photos? He's a big investor in the gallery and he wants to set up a showcase for you!”

 

Lydia couldn't believe it. When she was in high school, all she'd wanted was to win a Field's Medal and get her PhD. The life she had now was probably as far from that as she would get, but this was still huge because ever since she got into photography, all she wanted was her own showcase. She'd always thought the sale of her first set of photos, which had helped pay for her apartment, had been a fluke. But the idea of a showcase of her very own, funded by her first buyer made her grin widely.

 

“You're kidding? That's amazing! When is it supposed to be?” Derek pulled the car to a stop, and Lydia felt her attention on the call drifting because the scent of the Omega was strong. She wasn't the only one that noticed it.

 

“By the end of next week, so hopefully you'll be back here because this is big, Lyds. Career making big! Jordan wanted to be the one to tell you, but I told him I got dibs.”

 

Lydia could feel Derek's eyes on her, and she glanced hastily in his direction for a moment before turning her attention back to the conversation.

 

“I'll be there. Thanks so much for this Kira. I'll talk to you soon. Tell Jordan I'll call him later.” She said her goodbyes and hung up the phone.

 

Not wanting to see the look on Derek's face, Lydia got out of the car, leaving the door open for Stiles. John had put the residents of Beacon Hills on a curfew, hoping that no one would be out on the streets after dark. The part of town that they were in looked all but abandoned, but the scent was strong enough to let Lydia know that they were in the right place.

 

“We need to change.” Derek said from behind her.

 

Lydia shook her head. “It's too risky, Talia told us to be smart about this.”

 

“But we'll be able to track better.” Stiles was taking Derek's side and Lydia had to admit that he had a point.

 

“Right, we need to track this Omega down,” Derek glowered at her for a minute. “So you can run back to your life in Los Angeles.”

 

Lydia pretended not to hear him, walking away from the two so that she could shift out of sight. But her wolf recognized the sound of pack close by, slipping to the surface easier than it had in a while. It was no less painful. Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of a wolf slipping down a back alley behind the building they'd parked in front of. Even without her human eyes, she recognized the gray wolf as Stiles. Instead of following after him she started following the scent. In her wolf form, it was more potent than before, the smell of a new wolf almost a visible line in front of her eyes that she just had to follow. She wasn't paying any attention to anything else but the smell as she made her way around to the front of an apartment building. He had to live there.

 

There was a rustling noise behind her, and she turned her head to see Derek walking up beside her, on two legs and as naked as he'd been in the woods. If wolves could have rolled their eyes, she would have. Most of the wolves weren't uncomfortable with nudity, but Lydia had seen Derek nude more times than she'd liked since she got back.

 

“I'll meet you inside.” Derek said, before reaching down and carding his fingers through Lydia's fur.

 

Outraged, she twisted around and snarled at him, jaws snapping. She tasted blood, but Derek didn't look offended or hurt. If she didn't know any better, she would say that the bastard smiled as he made his way into the building. Still naked. She huffed and looked around for something to put on after she shifted back. Once she'd slid back into her human form, she grabbed the first thing she saw; a t-shirt and a pair of boxers. There were a pair of black sweatpants there and she grabbed those before storming into the apartment building.

 

Derek had located the Omega's apartment all on his own, leaving the door wide open. The place reeked of new wolf and blood, and Lydia had no doubt that he'd killed Christina in that room. Derek was standing in the middle of the living room and she walked over, throwing the sweatpants at his face.

 

“Don't ever pet me again! The next time you think to do so, I'm going to rip your throat out,” Her voice took on a cold edge to let him know that she wasn't messing around. “With my teeth.”

 

Derek said nothing, putting on the pants and looking around the apartment. The place wasn't messy but Lydia swore that she saw a stack of pizza boxes almost as tall as her in the kitchen. Obviously the guy's appetite was doing okay. They both twisted around at a noise in the doorway, but it was only Stiles.

 

“Oh my god.” Lydia muttered, and Derek's eyebrows rose questioningly. Stiles stood there in a t-shirt that was probably two sizes too small for him and a pair of hot pink boxer briefs.

 

He put his hands on his hips, looking unruffled. “In my defense, it was either this or the mumu.”

 

“I wish I had my phone.” Derek said, and Lydia's mouth twisted into a smile.

 

“Laura's gonna be sad that she missed this.” She agreed.

 

Stiles obviously wasn't embarrassed, so Lydia set out to search the apartment. She noticed from the tiny corners of paper still taped to the wall, that whoever lived there had once had pictures hanging up. Derek checked the trash can, but there was no evidence of photos. Lydia could still smell the blood, even though she couldn't see it with her human eyes, she knew it was there. It was Stiles that found the pizza box beneath the bed that had what obviously had to be a hank of human hair on it. Blonde hair, streaked with blood with a little bit of scalp still attached to it.

 

“Where's the rest of her?” Stiles asked, gagging a little and turning away.

 

“You probably don't want to know.” Derek said grimly.

 

Lydia felt her stomach turning, and turned away to examine the apartment further. There were no photos so she couldn't get an idea of what this guy might look like. He couldn't have been a wolf longer than a week. She remembered her first week, it hadn't been pretty. But she'd had Talia there to guide her through the transition. The Alpha who'd bitten this guy didn't give a damn about the carnage that was being left behind.

 

“Lydia?” Derek's voice was tight and Lydia turned around to look at him. He was holding a picture in his hand, his jaw clenched tight. Walking over to him, she plucked the picture out of his hand and turned it around to look at it.

 

“Please tell me that's a photo of this sick bastard?” Stiles asked hopefully, but when he peered over Lydia's shoulder, he made a soft choking sound.

 

It was a picture of Lydia, at her high school prom. Stiles should have been in that picture with her, but he'd been cut out, only his arm around Lydia remaining. A tremor ran through Lydia's body and she started to back up. Derek swiftly reached out and caught her arms before she stumbled back into the pizza box.

 

“Why would he have this?” She rasped, suddenly on the verge of tears. “Why does he have this, Derek?”

 

“I don't know. We'll take it to my mother. We need to get you home now.”

 

Lydia didn't correct him when he'd said home and she didn't push his hands away, his thumbs still rubbing soothingly at her arms beneath her sleeves. She nodded her head, and Stiles and Derek went into the other room to shift. Lydia stripped off the borrowed clothes, throwing them on the floor carelessly before crouching down. Her mind was racing and she hated to admit that it took her longer to shift than it should have. But she couldn't think of anything past the idea that this guy had her prom photo in his apartment.

 

The ride back to the Hale house was quiet. Lydia had tucked herself in the back seat, holding the picture in her hand, staring at it like it held all the answers in the world. In a way, it did. It held the answers to how her life had changed that night, how she was no longer the girl she'd been at seventeen. Most girls talk about prom horror stories; getting pregnant on prom night, getting dumped or getting drunk and embarrassing themselves. But how many could say that they died on their prom night and became something else? She could still remember everything as if it were yesterday; Stiles' hands covered in her blood, sharp teeth and glowing red eyes. Derek carrying her lifeless body off of the lacrosse field.

 

She should have never come back, she realized as she watched the full moon out the back window of the car, because her past was coming back to haunt her in a way she never wanted.

_Seven years ago_ ;

 

The idea of a summer job became more appealing to Lydia when her parents’ divorce began. When her father was trying to buy her love and her mother became bitter about everything, Lydia wanted no part of their little war against one another. She declared that she could make her own money. Natalie Martin had been surprised, but not entirely against the idea. She'd won the house and the cars in the divorce, but her substitute teaching job made them enough to cover their bills. Lydia liked the idea of being able to buy her own things.

 

Job choices for a seventeen year old girl were kind of limited in Beacon Hills. There was the classic burger joint cashier job, which Lydia refused to even consider. The idea of her hair smelling like grease after only a couple of hours in the place made her stomach turn. Working the makeup counter at Macy's was off the table because her whole entire paycheck would be gone before she even left the store. The library was hiring for someone to stock shelves and check out books, and while it wasn't exactly promising, the pay was good.

 

And then Stiles suggested that Derek Hale was looking for someone to work the desk in his new furniture store. The hours were good, and could become flexible when she started her senior year. The pay was pretty decent and even though Derek could be broody, he was an okay guy. These were Stiles' exact words. He promised Lydia that she had a real shot at the job, and that was how Lydia found herself standing outside of the modest sized building that had what looked to be a barn beside it. The sign above the door said Hale's Homemade Furnishings, and there was this intricate symbol carved—no, burned—into the wood below it. It was a triskelion, Lydia had seen it in a few books.

 

When she walked into the store, the little bell above her head tinkled so quietly she wondered how in the world anyone could hear it. The main lobby was nice; she could tell all of the chairs and tables were hand crafted. She ran her finger along the edge of the desk that she assumed was for the soon to be receptionist. She brushed against something raised in the wood, and when she looked closer, she saw another triskelion carved there.

 

“I put it on everything I make.” A voice said behind her, and Lydia spun around in surprise.

 

She'd seen Derek Hale around town before, but never spoken to him before. There had always been an air of mystery around the Hale family in Beacon Hills. People liked to talk. But Derek didn't look like any kind of cult member or serial killer, despite the intense gaze he had pinned on her right then, and she stood up a little straighter.

 

“I'm Lydia, my friend told me you were looking for someone to work the desk here?” she said, keeping her voice steady. Derek made her a little nervous, if she had to be honest with herself, but not in the bad way.

 

“Friend?” He repeated, eyebrows raised. Lydia nodded her head.

 

“Stiles Stilinski. He said the hours were good, the pay was okay, and even though you're a bit “broody” you're okay.” She said. This got a small smile out of Derek.

 

“Broody, huh? Yeah, that sounds like Stiles.” He said, but then he was frowning again. “Not to be rude, but I'm not sure this is the job for you, Lydia.”

 

She was taken aback by this, her mouth falling open a little in surprise. “Can I ask why?”

 

“Do you even know what I do here?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Lydia scoffed.

 

“Let me guess, you make furniture?” She asked sarcastically.

 

“I meant,” He walked past her to the other side of the desk and Lydia spun around. “this job requires you to write down orders, to know the tools and the types of wood—”

 

“This desk was made with what, Ripple Sycamore? And you used a carbide tipped cross cut saw blade, right? Probably with a miter gauge attachment.”

 

Derek's eyes widened in surprise and then his mouth split into a grin that surprised Lydia. It looked good on him, almost as much as the broody stare.

 

“I read.” She supplied helpfully.

 

“I get it, you're smart. I wasn't trying to insult your intelligence or anything, promise.” He said, crossing his heart for effect.

 

Lydia couldn't even be offended. For most of high school she'd been dumbing herself down for the sake of her popularity, despite her impressively high IQ. She didn't hide her intelligence anymore, not for anyone. Derek was still staring at her like he was hoping to find another reason not to hire her. If he was hoping to unnerve her, she wasn't going to let him.

 

“Should I take your creepy silence as a no to the job? Because I know for a fact that you can't not hire me just because I'm female. It's discrimination. And I've got no problem contacting—”

 

“You've got the job.” Derek assured her. Lydia stopped ranting and blinked at him, blushing suddenly.

 

“Oh. Well, good. Thank you.” She said, and Derek smirked.

 

“You can start tomorrow. Do me a favor and leave the heels at home? Wear flats or sneakers.” He said, even though it sounded more like a demand than a request. Lydia glanced down at the black Candie's heels that she wore, one of the last gifts she'd accepted from her father.

 

“I can do that.” She agreed, though she couldn't remember the last day she hadn't worn heels of any kind. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

Judging by the way that Stiles talked about Derek Hale, Lydia thought that working for him would be a lesson in patience. But he was a pretty decent boss. Anything she hadn't learned about wood working from the books she read, he taught her. Just about all of the orders were done online and the forms were simple enough. It didn't take Lydia long to get comfortable with the job, with Derek and the others that worked there. She met Boyd and the shop kid, Isaac. Her friend Danny from school worked there and, surprisingly, so did Jackson. Last summer Lydia had spent her time by the pool working on her tan. But now she spent her time at the front desk or sitting on top of a table in the dusty barn, watching the guys work.

 

She loved watching Derek work. The things that he could create were gorgeous. She had half a mind to order something for herself, just to have something that he made. Lydia could care less that there was probably sawdust in her hair and she was wearing a pair of Converses instead of the newest Jimmy Choo's.

 

Derek had also taken the time to introduce Lydia to his sisters, Laura and Cora. Cora was in Lydia's grade, though a year younger, and they'd never spoken before. She was a bit of a tomboy and as sarcastic as her brother. She also didn't like Lydia much, judging by the fact she never spoke to her when she was in the shop. Laura was intimidating in a way that Lydia could respect, and she obviously loved the role of big sister and the color red. She had bright streaks going through her hair and liked to wear these red jeans that reminded her of Stiles. The idea of Lydia and Laura being friends seemed to disturb Derek and that amused the hell out of Laura.

 

Lydia saved all of the money that she was making at the shop, and by the last week of her summer vacation, she'd earned enough to replace her entire wardrobe for the school year. She also could build a table from scratch and had the biggest crush on Derek Hale imaginable. He wasn't one of the teenage boys at her school, the kind that worshiped the ground she walked on and who would have done anything for a date with her. But she also wasn't going to bury her feelings like some scared schoolgirl, age gap be damned. She wanted Derek and she intended to tell him.

 

That was what had her driving to the shop in the middle of the night. Derek had a loft up in the barn, and he stayed there some nights. His car wasn't in the parking lot when Lydia pulled in, but she assumed that Laura had it like she sometimes did. When she got out of her car, she could hear the saw going in the barn. She used the key that Derek had given her a week after she'd started working there to get into the shop, opening the door quietly enough that the bell above wouldn't ring.

 

The office looked so different in the dark, and Lydia slipped past her desk to get to the door that led to the barn. She was barely through the shop when a dark shape stepped in front of her. Lydia's scream was cut off by a hand over her mouth, and she could smell the scent of cedar that seemed to cling to Derek's skin all of the time.

 

“What the hell are you doing?” He asked her in confusion, and for a minute Lydia swore that his eyes were glowing. But she assumed that it was just front the light coming through the half open barn door.

 

“You scared the hell out of me!” She said, shoving his hand away from her mouth.

 

“I asked you a question.”

 

“I wanted to come and see you. I...” She floundered for a minute, trying to get her heartbeat to slow. Derek tilted his head to the side, looking at her with some unreadable expression. “I want you to make me something.”

 

Derek's eyebrows raised in amusement. “You couldn't wait until morning to tell me that?”

 

Lydia paused to consider the fact that he hadn't bothered to move away from her. They were standing inches apart from one another in the hall that led to the barn. It would have been easy enough for him to back up a step, or walk away completely, but he hadn't. Boldly, Lydia moved closer.

 

“No, I couldn't wait.” She said, her voice quiet. His eyes were focused on her lips, as if he were tracking the words as she said them.

 

“Do you want to see what I'm working on?” He asked finally. Lydia blinked in surprise, but nodded her head. A shiver ran through her when Derek curled his fingers around her wrist, pulling gently.

 

Lydia loved the barn, from its sawdust covered floors to the arrays of wood that were piled on shelves lining the wall on the far side. She could see the loft, which was really just a mattress and box spring propped up on cinder blocks, a dark red comforter tossed haphazardly over a gray fitted sheet. Some of the tools were in the shop, but Derek did most of his work in the barn. Usually with the doors wide open and some kind of metal music that Lydia had never heard of on the ancient stereo. Tonight, the doors were closed and the sticky summer air drifted through the open skylight in the loft.

 

Derek was building some sort of trunk, made with Indian Laurel if her new found eye for the types of wood was anything to go by. It reminded her of those Hope chests that some children got. The lid hadn't been attached yet, and Lydia could see the triskelion carved into the lid, exactly like the one that Derek had tattooed between his shoulder blades. She'd stared at it on the days that Derek decided to work without a shirt on.

 

“It's for my mother's birthday.” He explained, and Lydia couldn't help but smile.

 

“It's beautiful, she's obviously going to love it,” Her fingers ran lightly along the curve of the symbol, wanting nothing more than to trace the one on Derek's back. “This symbol is important to you? Important enough that you'd get it tattooed on you?”

 

“It means something, to my family. It's hard to explain,” Derek didn't sound like he wanted to talk about it, so Lydia didn't push. “Come with me to my mother's birthday party this Sunday.”

 

Lydia's mouth fell open in surprise, she'd heard everyone talking about the infamous Talia Hale in the shop, but she'd yet to meet her. She knew that she'd come in to visit Derek, but their paths hadn't crossed yet. The idea of going to her birthday party and meeting her made Lydia excited for some reason. Mostly because Derek was inviting her.

 

“Only if you're sure she wouldn't mind a complete stranger coming to her party.”

 

“You're not a stranger, I've told her about you.” He confessed, and Lydia swallowed. Derek talked about her with his mother? That wasn't something that she'd expected to hear, and for some reason it sent a tiny thrill through her.

 

“Oh yeah? What do you tell your mother about me?” Lydia wondered and if she didn't know any better she would swear that Derek Hale was blushing.

 

One minute he was standing there staring at her awkwardly, the next he was backing her up against the workbench and kissing her. Lydia hesitated for a fraction of a second before kissing him back, pushing up on her tiptoes and winding her arms around his neck. Her mouth opened beneath his and he deepened the kiss, fingers curling into the fabric of her tank top. Derek pulled away suddenly, and she fought to catch her breath as he leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes still closed.

 

“Lydia,” He began, but she cut him off.

 

“If this is the part where you give me a laundry list of why we can't do this, please stop yourself.” She said and Derek finally looked at her. He was looking at her like he wanted to devour her, not walk her out to her car, and she took that as a good sign.

 

“There are things you don't know about me.” He confessed, though it wasn't much of a secret.

 

“Do you want to tell me everything right now?” Derek shook his head slowly, and Lydia found that she was okay with that. “But you want to tell me eventually, right?”

 

His hands started to slip beneath the hem of her tank top, hot fingers brushing along her skin. Lydia's nails scraped against the nape of his neck, and she swore that she heard him growl.

 

“Just tell me to talk, and I will.” He promised, something none of the guys she'd dated had ever said to her before.

 

“Derek? Stop talking.” She said, and he smirked, leaning down to kiss her again.

 

Derek's hands slid down to the backs of her thighs, lifting her up and sitting her on the edge of the work table. Lydia immediately wrapped her legs around his, biting at his bottom lip hard enough to tear another one of those growls out of him. They were starting to become her new favorite sound. His fingers nimbly tugged the elastic band from her hair and then buried themselves in her strawberry blond curls as he mouthed at her neck. Lydia tilted her head to the side, feeling the delicious burn of his stubble against her soft skin as he rubbed his face against her shoulder. She kicked off her flip flops, the slapping sound they made as they hit the wooden floor loud in the barn, and then slipped her fingers beneath the hem of Derek's T-shirt.

 

Lydia pushed his shirt up until it got stuck beneath his arms and he had to pull back from the mess that he was making of her neck. She could already feel a bruise forming right below her ear and she promised herself she'd be wearing her hair up for the next few days. Derek reached back and tugged off his shirt one handed, dropping it onto the floor beside them. Lydia's eyes glued themselves to his bare torso, and she licked her lips involuntarily as she ran her hands over every square inch of skin that she could reach. Derek suddenly caught her wrists in his hands and she looked up at him in surprise.

 

“I'm not sure you want the splinters that would come with doing this here,” Lydia almost told him to hell with the splinters, but he leaned down, mouth only inches from hers. “Not when there's a bed right up there.”

 

And really, Lydia couldn't argue with that. She started to slip off of the table, but her bare feet never had a chance to touch the floor as Derek lifted her up into his arms. She squeaked nonetheless, wrapping her arms and legs around him as he carried her towards the ladder that led to the loft. Her back came in contact with the rungs of the ladder, and she knew instinctively that she was supposed to go up, but she kept herself wrapped around Derek, mouth moving languorously against his. His hands grasped the ladder on either side of her head, and she realized that the only thing keeping her from falling was her legs around his hips and his body pinning her in place.

 

Confident that he wouldn't drop her, Lydia let her hands slide between them and she tugged her tank top up and off, throwing it over Derek's shoulder. He leaned in to bite at her collarbone and the feel of his teeth snagging on her skin stung just a bit, but she wasn't complaining. Her fingers slid into his hair, tugging slightly, and Derek looked up at her, pupils blown wide.

 

“Up?” She suggested, her voice coming out hoarser than she intended. He nodded slowly, hands coming back to her hips so that he could hold her steady and take a step back.

 

Her feet managed to find the bottom rung and she turned, climbing up the ladder. She could feel Derek's eyes on her, burning into her back as he followed her. The loft was sparsely furnished, just the bare essentials that Derek needed when he stayed there. The bed was a lot bigger up close, and Lydia hopped onto it, watching Derek with a smirk on her face. Tilting her head back, she had a perfect view of the moon in the sky, almost a burning orange. It was going to be a hot day tomorrow, she thought inanely before her eyes went back to Derek.

 

She felt like prey and she found that she liked it. She leaned back on her elbows, watching him stalk closer to the bed. There was no other word for the way he moved. His fingers curled around her ankle, giving a sharp pull that had her sliding down onto her back, hands automatically going above her head to grab the sheets and hold on. He climbed on the bed, straddling her hips and sliding his fingers beneath the straps of her bra. Her hands started to pull at the button on his jeans, but he pinned her them back against the bed. She pursed her lips, but she understood who was in charge, at least this time around.

 

“Is this expensive?” He wondered, but it was obviously meant to be rhetorical, because the next thing she knew, Lydia heard the sound of fabric tearing.

 

“I could have unclasped it.” She said petulantly, and Derek's answering grin was wolfish.

 

“More fun my way.” He shrugged, pulling the ruined fabric from her body. Lydia couldn't exactly argue.

 

Lydia's spine bowed off the bed and a harsh gasp escaped her when Derek leaned down and caught one of her nipples in his mouth, dragging his teeth over the tip teasingly. She wanted nothing more than to bury her hands in his hair and pull him in closer, but instead she clawed at the sheets and rolled her hips up against his. She could feel him straining against the front of his jeans and she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist, grinding against him. There was a certain victory in the way that he cursed and pulled away, staring up at her like he was going to eat her. She was all for that plan, wiggling her hips suggestively.

 

Leaning back, Derek pulled at the button on her denim shorts, tugging them down over her hips along with her panties in one go. Lydia lifted her hips, and then her legs, to help. Her skin felt hot all over as Derek’s eyes roamed over her naked skin, but she wasn’t about to try and cover herself up. She nudged his bare chest with one of her feet.

 

“Let me see you. It’s only fair.” She whispered.

 

Derek backed off the bed and stood up, undoing his jeans and pushing them down. He wasn’t wearing boxers beneath them, and she bit her bottom lip as her eyes trailed from his face down the miles of tanned skin and hard muscle. She hadn’t been with anyone else since Jackson, and she wasn’t one to compare, but he had nothing on Derek Hale. Getting up on her knees, Lydia crawled to the edge of the mattress and boldly reached out, curling her fingers around his cock, squeezing gently and delighting in the growl that the gesture tore from Derek’s chest. His hands wrapped around the back of her neck, yanking her in and kissing her with a roughness she found that she enjoyed.

 

He tipped her back on the mattress, and she let out a whine of disappointment when he dragged her hands away from his skin. She wanted to keep touching him, she wanted to undo him with her hands and build him back up. But Derek apparently had other plans as he shifted down her body, pausing to nip at her waist and suck a hickey into the thin skin above her hip. A shuddering gasp escaped her when he curled his hands around her thighs, pushing them up and apart. His teeth sank into her inner thigh and she nearly screamed. Lydia pushed her hips up, desperate to get his mouth on her, but he pulled back and looked up at her. Derek wanted to see her reaction, she realized, as he slowly slid two fingers inside of her.

 

Lydia inhaled sharply, fighting the urge to rock her hips down on his fingers and losing, one hand tangling in the sheets and the other in his hair as he twisted those two fingers just right. But it wasn’t enough and she pulled at his hair, hoping he got the message.

 

“Put your mouth on me.” She breathed.

 

“Okay,” He dragged his mouth up her inner thigh, and Lydia cursed, thinking of kicking him in the head. Instead, she tugged harder on his hair. She didn’t have to look down to see the smug grin on his face.

 

But he slid his thumb through her slick folds, rubbing over her clit as his tongue slid in between his fingers and the high pitched sound that came from Lydia made her really glad that no one else could hear them. Her feet pressed into the mattress and her back arched off the bed so quickly that Derek had to plant one of his hands on her stomach and pin her down. Her hand slid out of his hair down to one broad shoulder, nails sinking in, and her eyes very nearly rolled back in her head when Derek growled against her. Lydia felt herself getting closer, every muscle in her body growing taut. His hand on her stomach slid up to her sternum, holding her down more firmly, and she gasped his name, coming with the feeling of a live wire beneath her skin and his skin tearing beneath her nails.

 

Lydia’s breath rattled out of her as she slumped against the bed. Derek moved up her body, catching her mouth in a kiss that she could taste herself in. She twined herself around him, reaching down and wrapping her fingers around him, thumbing the tip and swallowing the groans that escaped him. He twisted away from her, reaching into the milk crate that served as his night stand to get a condom. Lydia plucked it from his hand as soon as he turned back to her, tearing the package open and rolling it down over his cock, giving him a firm squeeze at the base before pushing him onto his back. He went willingly, hands immediately curling around her hips as she reached between them, guiding him inside of her.

 

“Fuck,” the word was punched out of him, and Lydia whined, letting herself adjust to the feel of him inside of her. She was still sensitive from her orgasm, and she draped herself over him, nuzzling her nose against his affectionately before brushing her lips across his. “Lydia…”

 

She shifted her hips and let her eyes drift closed, lifting herself back up and shoving her damp hair from her eyes as she braced herself with her hands on his chest, moving tortuously slow. Derek gripped her hips and arched up, driving deep into her. She let out a sound that was between a whine and a moan, and she raised herself up and moved back down, her pace quickening.

 

Her hair fell into her eyes and she could feel the sweat rolling down her spine as she rolled her hips, and she hissed when she felt his fingers squeeze harder. Lydia had no doubt she’d have bruises later, but she didn’t mind. Derek met her with every twist of her hips, every thrust down and slide back up. Derek surged up and claimed her lips in a hard, demanding kiss, blunt nails digging into her lower back. She gasped his name against his lips, and she pressed her forehead against his, their eyes locked. She rocked against him slowly, scraping her fingernails down his back.

 

“That's it,” he urged and Lydia gasped as he slid a hand between them. She leaned in and bit down on his shoulder as she came for a second time, leaving behind a perfect indentation of her teeth. She heard him curse, and he flipped her onto her back, slamming into her. Lydia cried out, locking her legs tight around him as he moved ruthlessly, mouthing over the curve of her breast. He left behind teeth marks of his own when he came, and she gasped for air.

 

Derek slid out of her, shifting away to throw away the condom before slumping down on the mattress beside her. Lydia reached up and tossed an arm over her forehead, laughing softly. He turned his head, looking at her.

 

“Not exactly what I had in mind when I decided to come here.” She admitted with a grin, and he smirked.

 

“You never did tell me what you wanted me to make you.”

 

Lydia rolled over on her side, propping her chin up on his chest. Derek reached out, pushing her hair behind her ears and she pushed herself up, kissing him softly.

 

“Surprise me.” She whispered against his lips.

Sunday arrived sooner than Lydia thought. Work had gone on all week like nothing had changed, except she was spending her nights in Derek’s bed in the loft, driving home before sunrise and sneaking into the house before her mother noticed. They kept it strictly professional at work, though if the guys noticed the way that Derek’s eyes followed her around a room, or the way she smiled at him, they wisely didn’t say anything. He worked on the trunk for his mother, but never mentioned what he was working on for her, even though she knew he’d started something.

 

On Sunday, he’d offered to pick her up and drive her to the Hale house. Lydia had no idea how she should dress for meeting Derek’s mother for the first time, but she wanted to make a good impression, so she wore a white sleeveless cotton dress and a pair of heels, her hair in a loose knot at the nape of her neck. She was glad that her mother was out to lunch with friends, because the idea of explaining Derek to her didn’t seem appealing. She was putting her finishing touches on her makeup and making sure all hickeys were discreetly covered when she heard the Camaro pull up outside her house and she pushed a few wisps of hair out of her eyes, and grabbed her purse.

 

Derek was coming up the walkway when she pulled open the door, wearing a gray Henley with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows and a pair of jeans that fit him perfectly. She always wondered how he could wear long sleeves in the middle of summer and not be dying, but Derek always ran hot, so she supposed that it didn’t matter to him.

 

“I’m thinking of changing my mind about letting you wear heels around the shop.” He said, but he still had to lean down to kiss her, and she wrapped her arms around him, tucking her hands into his back pockets.

 

“Careful, you might regret that.” She teased.

 

The Hale house was tucked up behind the Preserve, and while Lydia had never been there before, she fell in love with the place as soon as she saw it. There were a few cars she recognized; Stiles’ jeep and Jackson’s Porsche, even the Sheriff’s cruiser was there beside Boyd’s pick up. Butterflies fluttered nervously when Derek parked and opened the door for her, but he gave her a reassuring smile and linked his fingers through hers. Cora was sitting on the front steps with Isaac, who was sporting a still fading bruise beneath his eye that he’d gotten for once from playing lacrosse with Scott and Stiles, not from his father.

 

“Talia’s present is in the bed of Boyd’s truck. Hey Lydia.” Isaac greeted shyly.

 

Lydia smiled brightly. “Hey.”

 

“Mom’s out back with everyone. She’s excited to meet your girlfriend.” Cora said, gesturing with a thumb to the front door.

 

They hadn’t put labels on anything yet, it had only been a week, but Derek didn’t correct her. Instead, he tugged Lydia up the stairs, making sure to mess up his sister’s perfectly straightened hair. Cora’s hand flew out to swat at him, but he was quicker.

 

The inside of the house was gorgeous, with gleaming hardwood floors and light blue paint. There was a big family portrait hanging over the fireplace in the living room, and there were photos on the shelves in the hall of Stiles and Scott, John and Melissa, and even one of Jackson, Boyd and Isaac. The hallway led from the front door down into the kitchen, with a left turn to the stairs, but Lydia followed Derek straight on through into the kitchen where the sliding glass door was sitting wide open. Lydia could hear boisterous laughter and classic rock from outside, and it made her smile.

 

“There you are, I was wondering what was keeping you.” Talia Hale offered Lydia a bright smile, something Derek had obviously inherited from her when he bothered to use it, getting up from the lawn chair and coming over. She wore a green sundress, and no shoes, her hair falling over one shoulder. Laura and Cora looked a lot like her. She leaned up to kiss Derek on the cheek, and then surprised Lydia by giving her a welcoming hug.

 

“Mom, this is Lydia Martin,” His hand was warm on Lydia’s lower back, and she didn’t feel so nervous anymore. “Lydia, this is my mother, Talia. You know everyone else.”

 

“Don’t forget about me, dear nephew,” Lydia glanced over her shoulder to see a man coming out of the sliding glass door. When she glanced back at Talia, she noticed that the woman’s smile had faded.

 

“This is my brother, Peter. I didn’t think you’d make it.” Talia said. Derek pulled Lydia a little closer to her as Peter came forward and handed Talia bottle of wine that was no doubt expensive.

 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lydia Martin. Derek talks about you all the time.” He said with a charming smile that Lydia didn’t find charming at all.

 

“Hey Lydia, why don’t I give you the unofficial tour of the house?” Stiles asked loudly. Something like relief crossed over Derek’s face.

 

“I’ll catch up.” He promised, kissing her lightly.

 

Stiles all but dragged Lydia into the house, but she let him. It was obvious that Peter liked to make people uncomfortable. Judging by the look on everyone’s faces, he wasn’t really welcome.

 

“He’s basically Satan in a V-neck, but he’s Talia’s family so we all tolerate him.” Stiles explained as they stood in the living room.

 

Lydia looked up at the family portrait that hung above the fireplace; she could now say that she’d know what Derek would look like when he was older because he was the spitting image of his father. According to Stiles, Lincoln Hale died a few weeks after that picture was taken. Lydia couldn’t imagine losing a parent, how hard that must have been for Derek especially, being the only son. She wondered how much of that smiling teenage boy was still left in Derek now.

 

“Alright Stilinski, I’ve made it through my first awkward family ordeal--” 

 

“With your usual amount of class, Miss Martin.” He interrupted.

 

“--Are we gonna stand here forever or am I getting a tour?” She wondered.

 

The Hale house was massive and beautiful. Lydia counted five bedrooms on the second floor, and another four on the third. A couple of doors were closed, and despite her natural curiosity, she didn’t open them. She was surprised that both Scott and Stiles had rooms there, and John and Melissa had one as well. There was even a room with two sets of bunk beds that Jackson, Isaac and Boyd used. Everyone was treated like family there. Stiles also showed Lydia Derek’s room, leaning in the doorway as she explored but didn’t snoop.

 

There were basketball trophies, family photos, a few handmade crafts from Laura and Cora from when they were little, and a row of tiny hand carved wolves on the shelf in the room, with a few stacks of books mixed in. A very worn out copy of The Outsiders made her smile, but it was the wolves that got her attention. She picked one up, turning it over in her hands.

 

“My dad made them.” Derek said from behind her, and she jumped, turning around to find him standing right behind her. She hadn’t even heard him come into the room, or heard Stiles leave.

 

“They’re beautiful. I see where you got your talent from.” She said, turning around to put the little black wolf on the shelf. Derek stopped her.

 

“You should keep it,” Lydia started to protest, but he took it and tucked it into the pocket on her dress. His hands slid to her hips, gently backing her up against the dresser. “I’m sorry about Peter. He’s…”

 

“Basically Satan in a V-neck?” She supplied, and Derek smirked.

 

“He’s not that bad. We just... don’t like him.” He shrugged.

 

“Quit hiding with your girlfriend upstairs and come socialize with us!” Laura hollered from downstairs.

 

“Convince me that it would be incredibly rude to duck out of my mother’s birthday party?” He asked as he pulled Lydia towards the door. She laughed and shook her head, fingers of her free hand curling around the wolf in her pocket.

With the start of senior year, Lydia thought that things might change. She didn’t think of quitting her job, instead she dropped down to working on the weekends and one or two nights a week. When she wasn’t at school, she was with Derek and her friends at the Hale house. Baking with Laura or tutoring Isaac in Calculus or watching the guys play an overly rough version of lacrosse in the back yard. She didn’t mind the fact that her mother had a new boyfriend and wasn’t home as much, Talia had offered up one of the guest rooms for Lydia to use whenever she liked.

 

Eventually, Natalie demanded to meet Derek. Lydia had met her mother’s boyfriend, and they seemed quite serious, much to her father’s annoyance, so Lydia figured that it was only fair. Derek came over a few nights for dinner. He brought flowers for Natalie every time, and she could see that her mother was utterly smitten. Lydia couldn’t exactly blame her. On nights that she was too swamped with homework, Derek would come over. If her mother was home, he would leave and then come back, climbing up the rose trellis on the side of the house by Lydia’s window. She was always afraid that he would fall, but he never did.

 

Lydia’s eighteenth birthday was celebrated at the Hale house, along with the news that she’d been accepted to Stanford. She worried about having to handle a long distance relationship, but Derek assured her that they had nothing to worry about. More than a few times, she thought about asking him to move to Palo Alto with her, and yet she couldn’t ask him to leave his family. There was some part of her, deep down, that wondered if he would say no. But they were okay, more than okay really. She couldn’t imagine her future without Derek in it, and if that meant putting a few hours between them for a few years, they would make it work.

 

Before Lydia knew it, the school year was almost over. She would be graduating, and have the summer to spend with Derek and her friends before she left for Palo Alto. She didn't want to think about the fact that she had mere months left in Beacon Hills. Lydia parked her car outside the Hale house, she had a few hours to kill before she had to meet her father for dinner. He was offering to pay for an apartment instead of her living on campus, and Lydia had no intentions of turning him down. Sneaking Derek into her bedroom was one thing, but sneaking him past roommates would just be awkward. She smiled to herself thinking of the idea of her own place and having Derek there with her.

Getting out of the car, she breathed in deeply. The sound of the car door shutting echoed loudly. It was so quiet and peaceful there, so different from the quiet of her own house. It was feeling more and more like home. Heels crunching on the gravel walkway, she headed for the front door. There was a noise behind her, snapping branches and a soft sound that should only come from an animal. She turned and gazed into the distance, trying to make her eyes focus on whatever could be out there. There was a blur of tan moving through the trees, she was sure of it.

"Lydia?" She spun around so quickly she nearly fell over, but Derek's hands on her waist kept her on her feet. "Are you okay?"

"Other than you give me constant heart failure, I'm good," She glanced over her shoulder, but whatever she'd seen out there before was gone. "I thought I saw something."

"It was probably just a deer." He said dismissively.

"This close to the house?" Lydia wondered. He only shrugged.

"We get them out here every now and then. I think Stiles and Cora are feeding them."

Lydia could believe it. She turned her attention fully to Derek, who looked like he was just coming back from a run. She smiled up at him, even in her heels, he was still taller.

"I have a surprise for you inside." He said, and Lydia smirked.

"Is this a surprise in your bedroom?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He laughed. "Actually, it's in your room."

Lydia followed him into the house, smiling at the addition of a photo of herself and Derek on the shelf by the stairs, up to the room that Talia had given her. It was right across the hall from Derek's, and even though she spent more time in his room, she was touched by the idea that Talia thought enough of her to give her a place in her home.

Laura had been the one to decorate the room, and Lydia loved how it had turned out, but she spotted the new addition right away. The desk sat in the nook beneath the bay window, a beautiful cherry wood piece that almost brought tears to her eyes. He'd been working on this for her for months, and she didn't even have the words to say how much she loved it.

"Good stunned silence? If you don't like it, I can always take it out into the front yard and burn it." He suggested. Lydia turned and glared at him with watery eyes.

"Touch it and I'll break your arm." She teased, before leaning up and pressing her lips to his. "I love you."

"I love you too." He said softly, leaning down to nuzzle at her neck. It was a familiar gesture, and she smiled, carding her fingers through his hair. "I'm gonna go take a quick shower."

Lydia was tempted to join him, but she wasn't sure when Talia would be home and the last thing she wanted was to be caught in the shower with her son. Instead, she went downstairs to get something to eat. The Hale's kitchen was stocked with a variety of foods that Lydia couldn't imagine everyone being able to consume before it went bad, but she guessed with so many people coming and going, not much went to waste. She made herself a light salad, not wanting to fill up before her dinner with her dad, and was about to turn and put the dressing back in the refrigerator when she nearly bumped into Peter Hale. The dressing bottle fell from her hands, but Peter caught it before it could hit the floor. She let out a breath, hand over her heart.

"Oh my god, what is it with you Hales sneaking up on people?" She asked, startled. Peter smirked, turning to the refrigerator and replacing the dressing before looking back at her.

Over the past few months, she'd been careful to avoid being around him. There was just something about him that didn't sit right with her. Obviously his own family felt the same way, judging by how many family events they didn't include him in. She always felt like if he should be in the corner, twirling his mustache in an evil fashion.

"I didn't mean to startle you," He didn't sound sincere at all, and Lydia carefully slipped around him, grabbing a fork and her bowl and sitting on one of the stools at the island. "Congratulations are in order, I assume? You're going to be headed off to Stanford soon?"

Lydia glanced at the ceiling, hoping that Derek didn't take much longer. "Yep."

"Long distance relationship for you and Derek, that's going to be hard." Peter said, his voice falsely sympathetic. Lydia narrowed her eyes.

"It isn't that far, we're prepared to make it work." She said. It might have sounded like he was just being protective of his nephew, but from what Derek and Stiles had told her about him, it wasn't the case.

"Well, fate has a way of making things work for you." He said with that same smirk. Lydia looked down at her salad, suddenly finding her appetite completely gone.

Before she could say anything to that, the back door mercifully opened and Stiles, Scott and Isaac came stomping in. They were wearing their lacrosse gear, and they all froze when they saw Peter and Lydia alone. Lydia wasn't surprised to see them all there; a few weeks before Isaac's father had up and left him, and he wound up in Talia's custody. Lydia knew what kind of father he'd had, he was better off with the Hale family. Scott and Stiles spent almost as much time at the Hale house as Lydia did.

"Peter," Stiles dropped his bag. "Don't you have someone else to be harassing? Perhaps in another country?"

The look of annoyance Peter gave Stiles didn't seem to faze the teenager at all, he looked like he'd put himself between the two of them if he could. Finally, after a few uncomfortable minutes, Peter looked away. But his gaze fell on Lydia and he smiled.

"I look forward to seeing you again, Lydia." He said before he left the kitchen. A few moments later, they heard the front door shut.

Scott glanced at Lydia. "Are you okay?"

Derek came into the kitchen before she could answer, and she put a smile on her face, but he could still tell something was wrong and he frowned.

"Peter was here." It wasn't a question, and she guessed that he'd seen him leave.

"He was just being his usual creeper self. Did you ask him yet, Lyds?" Stiles gratefully changed the subject and Lydia realized that her brief conversation with Peter had almost made her forget.

"Ask me what?" Derek wondered. Lydia gave Stiles a pointed look.

"C'mon. Lydia's gonna ask Derek to prom and she doesn't want us to overhear." He ignored the murderous look that she gave him as he, Scott and Isaac left the kitchen.

"Do you think John will forgive me for gravely injuring his only son?" She asked.

"They still have Scott," He sat down on the stool beside her and she leaned into him. "So, prom?"

Originally Lydia wasn't even going to go, mostly because she didn't think that Derek would want to go. But prom was one of those rites of passage, and she really wanted him to go with her.

"I checked into it, you fall into the age limit for a date that doesn't attend high school, but if you don't want to go--"

"Of course I want to go with you." He said and Lydia smiled brightly.

"Good, because I already bought the tickets and bought my dress," He looked like he wanted to argue about her paying for the tickets, but she just waved him off. "Did you go to your prom?"

The smile of Derek's face faded, and she wondered if it had anything to do with Kate Argent. From what Derek had told her about his ex, they would have been together at the time. He hadn't told her too much, just enough for Lydia to get the idea that the breakup had been more than messy.

"No, it was around the time my dad died." He admitted, and that sounded like the truth, but she still had a feeling there were other things about that time he wasn't telling her.

"Well, I guess it'll be a first for both of us then." She said, and that brought the smile back to his face.

"We can go tux shopping together!" Stiles yelled from the living room, and Derek let his head drop to the counter. Lydia laughed delightedly, leaning over to kiss the side of his neck.

She couldn't wait for prom.

"He'll be here." Stiles promised for the fourth time since they arrived, but Lydia was starting to lose hope.

"Talia won't keep him too long, she knows this is important to you." Scott added.

Her friends were trying to be helpful, but Lydia just wanted Derek there with her. He'd told her to go ahead with Stiles and he would meet her there. He'd promised. She couldn't really get mad at him, Peter had told him that Talia had some kind of emergency and needed him at the house. She wouldn't come between him and his family, not even on prom night.

"Okay, enough is enough," Stiles stood up, his chair screeching loudly on the floor and causing Lydia to wince. "Lydia, get off your cute little ass and dance with me."

She looked at him like he was crazy. "Um, pass."

She felt bad as soon as she'd said it, she remembered that Stiles had asked her to the winter formal in their sophomore year and she'd said no. Jackson had been a jerk all night and she'd kept thinking that she should have said yes to Stiles. He'd been trying all night to keep her hopes up while she waited for Derek. The least she could do was dance with him.

"One dance." She relented, getting to her feet. Stiles grinned and held out his fist to Scott, who rolled his eyes and bumped his own fist against it.

And of course, a slow song came on, but Stiles wasn't a bad dancer. He didn't step on her feet once. She was glad to have him as a friend. They were going to different colleges, but she knew she'd be talking to him on a regular basis, almost as much as Derek.

"I'm gonna miss you, Lydia Martin." Stiles said as they danced. Lydia smiled and rolled her eyes fondly.

"You're going to Berkeley, not the other side of the world. It won't be that bad. Besides, we still have the summer." She assured him.

"And we'll skip the cliché teen moment where you confess your undying loving to me and we run away to Canada."

Lydia swatted Stiles on the back of his head, but he seemed unfazed. "Dream on, Stilinski."

"Oh, I will."

Her eyes roamed over the room crowded with teenagers, past Finstock yelling at a couple of kids by the buffet, hoping to spot Derek among them But he was still absent, and she thought about going to find him.

Stiles was still talking. "Do you think Laura would go out with me?"

"Laura Hale. Really?" But she grinned. The idea of Stiles and Laura together wasn't exactly a bad one, at least not to Lydia. If there was anyone who could handle Stiles and his unique brand of sarcasm, it was Laura. "I think that she'd be crazy not to give you a shot. After the disaster that was your relationship with Heather, you deserve to be happy."

Her cell phone vibrated in the small purse that hung from her wrist, and Stiles grinned like he'd been right all night. When she checked the message, she saw that it was from Derek.

"He's pulling in now and he wants me to meet him out front." She said, leaning up to give Stiles a kiss on the cheek before she turned into the crowd.

There were a handful of people loitering outside, and the music was loud enough to be heard all the way in the parking lot. Derek's car was there, but he was nowhere to be found. Lydia was confused, he would have had to walk past her to get into the school. Her phone went off again, this time the message saying that he wanted her to meet him on the lacrosse field. Wondering what he was up to, she headed that way. The stadium lights were on, and she squinted against their harsh brightness.

"Derek?"

She was in the middle of the field and there was still no sign of him. Something didn't feel right to her. The lights made it almost impossible to see past the bleachers, but Lydia could see a dark figure out there, and she knew right away that it wasn't Derek.

"Lydia!" She spun around at the sound of someone yelling her name and saw Stiles running across the field towards her. He was moving faster than she'd ever seen him. "Lydia, run!"

There was a sound behind her, a deep animal growl that sent chills down her spine. When she looked back, she thought that she was seeing things. Because there was no possible way that there was a wolf stalking towards her. She was frozen to the spot, even though she should have ran. Behind her, Lydia could still hear Stiles getting closer. He was still yelling, and over the sound of her blood pounding in her ears, she thought he'd yelled Peter's name.

The wolf lunged and Lydia finally tried to run like Stiles told her, but she wasn't fast enough. Sharp teeth tore into the flesh of her side and she screamed. As she fell to the ground, she feared it would attack again, rip out her throat and leave her there to die. But the wolf just stood there, almost as if it was waiting for something. The pain was unbearable, it felt like her veins were on fire and her vision was going blurry and gray. There was a sharp yelp and she had to have been hallucinating, because she could have sworn that Stiles grabbed the wolf by the scruff of its neck and threw it.

"Lydia!" Derek was there suddenly, his hand pressing against the wound in her side. Lydia threw her head back and screamed.

"He bit her. Fuck, Derek, he bit her!" Stiles yelled frantically.

"I have to get her to Talia."

Lydia was confused. Why would he take her to Talia when he needed to get her to the hospital?

"I'll get Scott and we'll meet you at the house," Derek lifted Lydia up into his arms and she stifled a scream against his shoulder, seeing spots dancing in her vision. It was a miracle she hadn't passed out yet. "Why would he bite her? He knows what it would do to her."

"We don't know what it will do to her."

"Derek, no woman has ever--"

"Shut up and go! If you see Peter on the way, run him the fuck over!" Derek's voice sounded farther away. Lydia felt like she was underwater, her eyelids growing heavy.

Derek put her in the passenger seat of his car, and she idly wondered if anyone had seen them. Someone needed to get a hold of her parents and let them know what happened. She needed to go to a hospital. The last thing Lydia heard before she lost consciousness was Derek's voice, telling her to hold on.

Lydia awoke in a cage. There was no other way to describe it. The large room was unfamiliar to her, and she realized that she was in the Hale's basement. There were cages in the Hale's basement. No wonder she'd never been down there before. Her stomach rolled violently and she slumped over. Beads of sweat broke out on her skin and she belatedly realized that she was only wearing one of Derek's t-shirts.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" Lydia called out, her voice hoarse.

From what she could see, there were two other cages beside the one that she was in, but the rest of the basement seemed normal. She saw her bloodied prom dress tossed over an overstuffed armchair and her skin went hot all over, another wave of nausea hitting her. 

The basement door opened and Lydia pressed her back to the wall. She wanted nothing more than to see Derek come down those stairs, but she was terrified, and she had no idea what was going on. Talia came around the stairs and she looked at Lydia with such sympathy. She was carrying a coffee mug in her hands. Lydia had been hoping for keys.

"Let me out of here, Talia, please!"

"I wish that I could, sweetheart, but you were bitten last night. Do you remember what happened?" She asked softly.

Lydia remembered. The wolf, Stiles and Derek with her on the lacrosse field, the bite on her side. When she lifted the hem of the shirt it was still there, a large crescent shaped bite mark on her hip. The holes that the teeth had made went quite deep, the skin red and raw. But she wasn't bleeding anymore, and she could tell that she hadn't bled that much to begin with, even though she knew realistically she should have died on that field.

"What is happening to me?" She remembered something else, a name bouncing around in her head. "Peter."

Talia's eyes gave nothing away, but Lydia understood that Peter had something do with this. She tried to remember what Stiles had said, but her head throbbed painfully. Everything in the room shifted and she collapsed onto the cot that she'd woken up on. Her mouth watered and Lydia swallowed convulsively.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Lydia, please believe me. There are so many things that I wanted to tell you, that Derek wanted to tell you himself, but our laws forbid it." Talia explained.

A sharp spasm of pain tore through Lydia's body and she couldn't stifle the scream that escaped her. Above her head there was a loud crash and muffled shouts. She thought that she heard Derek's voice floating down through the floorboards, and she wanted nothing more than to call out to him.

"Talia, something's wrong, I need a doctor." She gasped. But Talia made no move to let her out. Instead, she offered her the coffee mug.

"Drink this, it will help with the pain," She stuck the mug between the bars. Lydia made no move to take it, so she sat it on the floor inside the cage. "Trust me, Lydia, you're going to want to drink that for what's coming next."

Lydia wanted to ask Talia how she was supposed to trust her when she was trapped in a cage, feeling like she was dying. The bite on her side throbbed painfully, and her vision swam as she tried to get up. She was too dizzy. Instead, she collapsed on the cold concrete floor. There was a cracking sound, and Lydia's eyes widened disbelievingly as her fingers began to elongate.

"It's so painful the first time." Lydia looked over at Talia and she saw that the woman had tears in her eyes. "For what it's worth, I hope you survive this."

Lydia tried to reach for the mug, but another sharp pain went through her and she just ended up knocking it over. She threw her head back and screamed, the sound turning more animalistic as her bones broke and shifted. She felt like she would die, and she would have gladly done so if it would have made the pain end. But she wasn't dying, and she was beginning to understand that as the shift was complete.

"Oh my god." Talia gasped and Lydia growled, lunging at her. But the bars stood in her way and she just stared at Talia, waiting to see what would happen. The woman smiled, and Lydia understood that this moment meant something. It didn't stop her from slamming against the bars again. "I know you can hear me Lydia, and I know you understand."

She didn't understand what it was about Talia's voice that made her want to stop and listen, that made her feel like she had to. A sharp whine escaped her, a purely animal sound, and she pawed at the ground, desperate to be out of the cage. Lydia had this incredible urge to run, but Talia made no move to let her out or leave. Instead, she stepped aside and Lydia realized there was a mirror leaning against the wall, probably for her benefit. There was no denying that the large wolf in the cage was her, but the sight of it still shocked her. She paced back and forth in front of the bars, hoping the image in the mirror would change, that this was just some hallucination induced by blood loss. But Lydia knew deep down it was real.

"I'll explain it all to you, I promise," Talia turned towards the stairs, though she kept looking back like she couldn't believe what she was seeing was real either. "Everything has changed for us, Lydia. You're special."

Lydia had a sinking feeling that Talia Hale's definition of special wasn't the same as most.

The change back wasn't nearly as painful, but it left her exhausted and she barely made it back to the cot to lie down. Everything felt different; she could hear the people in the house, hear their individual heartbeats. The scent of old books and a faint hint of mildew filled the basement, and Lydia closed her eyes, hoping that the pounding in her head went away.

The scent of burnt cedar suddenly flooded her senses, warm and familiar, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Derek standing on the other side of the bars. He looked like he hadn't slept at all, dark circles beneath his eyes and his usual stubble verging into full on beard territory. Lydia had an overwhelming urge to wrap herself around him and never let go. But then she remembered where she was and how she got there. Her heart broke, because the blame for this was on him.

"I brought you some clothes and something to eat--"

"Was this one of the things that you couldn't tell me? She sat up and pulled the blanket that was on the cot around herself, suddenly uncomfortable with her nudity. "Did you know this would happen to me?"

He didn't answer right away. "I thought that I could get to you in time. Peter made sure I didn't."

Lydia felt the hot sting of tears in her eyes. He'd been lying to her all along, and maybe she wouldn't have believed him if he'd told her he was a wolf. Maybe she would have run away screaming, maybe she wouldn't have listened. He never told her.

"You knew he'd get to me, that he would turn me into this... this monster?" She asked, bitterness in her voice.

"You are not a monster." He stepped closer, wrapping his hands around the bars, and Lydia found to stay in that spot instead of touching him like she wanted "You saw him, Lydia. You saw Peter."

Lydia's face contorted in confusion. Her head was killing her and her stomach muscles kept spasming like she hadn't eaten in days.

"I saw him what?"

"When you came here, and you saw something in the woods. It was Peter you saw, shifting after a run." Derek explained.

Lydia closed her eyes. It all suddenly made sense; the conversation with Peter in the kitchen, his parting words. And then she thought about what Stiles had said on the lacrosse field.

"Women don't survive. Stiles said no woman had ever survived." Her voice shook.

"There are some born females, like Cora and Laura and my mom, but you're the first to survive the bite."

She wished that didn't sound like she was trapped, like being this thing... a wolf, didn't upend her entire life. Lydia wanted out. She couldn't do this. Getting to her feet, she walked over to the bars and curled her fingers over his. She could actually hear his heart beat faster.

"You need to let me out of here, Derek. Please, if you love me, you'll let me out." She pleaded.

He wasn't going to do it, Lydia could see it in his eyes. But he had to have the keys on him because he'd brought her clothes and food.

"I can't go against our Alpha, I'm sorry." He whispered. Lydia reached out and ran her fingers through his hair. She ignored the pull that came from the word Alpha.

Lydia had to use his weakness for her to her advantage, as well as her new found strength. Her grip on Derek's hair tightened and she yanked him forward, slamming his head into the bars. It was hard enough to knock him out, and she let his body fall to the floor. Crouching down, she pulled the keys from his pocket and twisted her arm around to try out the keys until one unlocked the door. There were only four, it wasn't hard to find the right one. She pushed the door open, expecting alarms to go off or people to come running, but nothing happened. Lydia stepped over Derek's unconscious body, grabbing the oversized t-shirt off the top of the clothes pile. She could feel bad about hurting him later. For now, she needed to get out of there before someone came looking.

She ran.

Derek found her two days later, out by the abandoned distillery, half conscious. She'd spent the whole time in wolf form and she could barely move, curled in a ball, naked and shivering. Maybe if she'd been a little stronger, she would have told him she wasn't going back. But as soon as she saw him, she knew she wouldn't fight him. He wordlessly shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped her in it, lifting her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing. Lydia didn't struggle or say anything. She let him carry her all the way home.

_Now_ ;

Stiles had always prided himself on being smart, but it didn't take a genius to know that the Omega and Peter Hale were connected. The prom picture of Lydia had been a huge clue. But Talia was adamant; Peter wasn't in Beacon Hills. She wasn't protecting him, but Stiles thought she didn't want to believe her own brother would do this to the pack. Like biting Lydia hadn't gotten him banished. He would never question his Alpha outright unless he had the others to back him, but Talia was wrong. Peter was involved. He had to be.

He found Laura in their room, seated on the couch beneath the bay window, watching the moon fade from the sky. It would be morning soon, but everyone was just going to bed. Her hand was pressed protectively over her stomach.

"Lydia's finally asleep. Scott made her some of that tea that's pretty much Nyquil for werewolves." He said, sitting beside her.

"They're going to notice soon. I'm scared to tell them," She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't look at me like that, it makes me want to punch you."

Stiles smirked. "You Hale's are so violent."

"I'm being serious." Laura tried to frown as Stiles pulled her closer, and she tucked her head against his shoulder.

"Maybe if you weren't a wolf, it would be different, but you are. It makes all the difference." He mumbled into her hair.

The pack had taken the engagement well enough; once they'd gotten over the original surprise that Laura and Stiles were together, they were all so supportive. But the fears she had right now were real, because there were specific rules about pregnancies.

Pack law was clear; if the child was born a male, it was taken to be raised by the pack. And since maybe seven out of ten males born were born wolves, this happened a lot. Talia had only done this once; Scott had lived with Rafe and the pack up to the point when he broke Scott's arm. Since then, Talia had been a little lax with that law. No new children had been born into their pack in their generation. Stiles knew that Talia would never take Laura's child from her, but maybe there was some tiny part of him that hoped the baby was a girl.

"You realize I hate you when you're right?" Laura knocked her forehead against his chest. "We'll tell them once we've dealt with the Omega."

Stiles didn't bring up his suspicions about Peter. His betrayal, not only to the pack, but the Hale family, still stung after all these years. Just the mention of his name had been known to set Laura off. Maybe he'd take the idea to Derek, he'd seen the look on his face when he'd found the photo of Lydia at the Omega's apartment.

"I have to meet with Argent in a few hours, he might have a lead on Deucalion. We should get some sleep." She said finally, getting up off the seat and walking towards the adjoining bathroom.

That was when the screams started.

Lydia sat curled up in one of the kitchen chairs, cup of coffee pressed between her hands. Everyone was sleeping, but after she'd woken up screaming bloody murder at five am, she hadn't been back to sleep. When she'd moved to Los Angeles, the nightmare had stopped. But it looked like Peter Hale was back in her head again and it was just another reason she needed to get the hell out of Beacon Hills.

The front door shut and Lydia tensed before the smell of leather and pine needles hit her. John came into the kitchen, dressed in his sheriff's uniform and carrying a paper sack that smelled amazing. She'd been so zoned out she hadn't even heard his cruiser pull up. He pulled off his sunglasses and fixed her with that worried father look she'd actually missed.

"Coffee's fresh." She said by way of greeting. John got himself a cup and then sat down across from her.  
He pushed the bag towards her. "Consider this a bribe. Start talking."

Lydia narrowed her eyes at him, but couldn't help but smile a little. John Stilinski had been like a second father to her from the moment that Derek brought her back, even before the bite he'd been nothing but kind to her. Grabbing the bag, she opened it to find six strawberry cream cheese Danishes in there and her stomach rumbled. He played dirty.

"I was going so well in Los Angeles, John. I've got a good job, friends. I've met someone and he's great. Uncomplicated and he makes me so happy, and he's..."

"Human?" He supplied for her and she nodded her head, tearing a piece off of one of the Danishes and popping it into her mouth.

"Does he know?" He asked.

"I haven't broken the rules, John. I'm not going to tell him. That's the thing. I don't know if I ever want him to know and that worries me more."

John looked at her with such pity, she had to look away for a moment. John and Melissa made the human/werewolf relationship work well. Maybe if Melissa and Talia hadn't been so close, or Rafe hadn't once been part of the pack that never could have happened. But Lydia honestly couldn't say that she saw herself having that kind of relationship with Jordan.

"If you're feeling like that, then maybe he isn't the right one for you. I know that's not what you want to hear, but these kinds of things are hard for us. Not just with the rules, but finding someone who's willing to accept this life. He'd have to be willing to take the bite, become part of the pack. Some don't even survive, you know that."

She did know that, not that she wanted to be reminded, but maybe it was what she needed to hear.

"On a change of subject, there's supposed to be a rave tonight. Talia wants you and Derek there. It's going to be an opportune place to hunt for the Omega." John said.

Lydia was glad for the change of subject, but the fact that Talia kept pairing her off with Derek made her want to protest. Before she could, her cell phone rang, Jordan's smiling face appearing on the screen. It was the first time he'd called since she'd arrived in Beacon Hills, and she just couldn't ignore him. She grabbed the phone and her coffee and walked outside.

"Hi." She said quietly, walking across the vast backyard towards the woods. She had learned a long time ago how far she had to be out of hearing range for anyone in the pack.

"Hi yourself. How's it going out there?" his voice was warm and instantly comforting to her, but it didn't give her the feeling of home she hadn't realized that she was missing.

"Other than the fact that I ruined a perfectly good pair of heels, it's going good," she paused and sat down on a fallen tree. The grass around the area was dead from being walked on so much. It wasn't the first time she'd been out there.

"How's your friend's dad?" God, but she hated lying to him. She could see him, sitting in his office, full of concern for her. 

"He's getting better. I'm probably going to be a few more days at least."

"I take it that Kira gave you your good news?" Lydia had forgotten all about the showcase.

"Yes, she did, and I'm pretty sure you pouted about not being able to tell me first. But as long as you promise to be my plus one, it shouldn't be too bad, right?"

Lydia's gaze suddenly drifted back towards the house, she saw Derek walking across the yard. It looked like he'd stolen one of her Danishes, and she scowled. When he got close enough, she could see a smirk on his face, and she rolled her eyes.

"... Lydia? Did you hear me?" Lydia hadn't realized that she'd completely zoned out, watching Derek. That just made her angrier. At him, and at herself.

"Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night." At least that wasn't a lie. But with the higher metabolism, she didn't have to worry about feeling run down as long as she made sure to shift. That was something she wasn't really looking forward to. "What were you saying?"

Derek was getting closer to her, and she forced herself to focus on Jordan telling her about work and what was going on with his mother trying to dictate over Kira's upcoming wedding to her fiancé Liam. Kira had asked Lydia to be a bridesmaid, much to Moira's apprehension, but Lydia refused to let her friend down.

“Jordan, we're getting ready to go to the hospital, can I call you later?"

Derek stood at the edge of the woods, his face carefully blank. Lydia knew better. She didn't want Jordan to hear whatever Derek had to say.

"No problem. I love you." She closed her eyes, if only to avoid the look on Derek's face when he overheard those words.

"Me too." Lydia hung up and sipped her lukewarm coffee, before finally looking at Derek.

There had always been a time when she'd been an expert at reading his mood just by his facial expressions. There was no tense line of his jaw that suggested he was angry. He was just quiet, and that worried her.

"Does he know he's dating the big bad wolf?" He asked finally.

Lydia got up. She wanted to be on her feet if they were arguing. "He's still alive, isn't he?"

He stepped closer and she knew if she tried to back away, she'd fall on her ass. He got close enough that all Lydia would have to do was inhale and they'd be touching. She shoved her cell phone in the pocket of her jeans so she wouldn't crush it in her fist.

"Are you going to tell Talia?" He wondered and Lydia glared up at him.

"Not if I don't have to."

Derek leaned closer, and she thought that he was going to kiss her. Lydia was too busy wondering if she'd stop him to realize right away that he was smiling.

"Come spar with us."

She blinked up at him, thinking that she'd misheard him. "What?"

"Come on. I'm sure you're a little rusty after all that relaxed living out in Los Angeles--"

"I can handle my own just fine, Derek." She snapped, offended. He smirked at her.

"Come prove it then." He challenged.

Challenging Lydia had probably been a mistake, Derek realized, as he watched her kick Isaac's legs out from underneath him and take him to the ground by his throat. His body collided with the hard packed earth in such a way that if he'd been human, he would have broken something. But the young Beta just grinned and she relented, letting him go. Derek had trained Isaac and Lydia around the same time, though Lydia's training sessions had been a bit more intimate. He had a particular memory of the two of them in the basement, Lydia's fingers curled around the bars of the cage they'd once kept her in. But he wouldn't allow himself to go stroll down memory lane, as Lydia had called it.

Isaac got to his feet, moving inhumanly fast, but Lydia was still able to predict his next move, catching his wrist when he swung and twisting his arm behind his back.

"Give up?" She asked, and when Isaac didn't answer, she pushed his wrist a little higher, causing him to let out a grunt of pain. "Oh come on, you know how to get out of this one."

Isaac's eyes slid over to Derek, because he did know how to get out of it. But he also knew that if he did the move that Derek taught him, that involved slamming the back of his head into Lydia's face, Derek would probably kick his ass, and not in the playful sparring way. Instead, he reached back with his free arm, grabbing her around the neck and flinging her over his shoulder. Derek winced with how hard she landed.

Lydia had been right, she could still handle her own. Derek wondered if this guy she'd been seeing knew that she knew how to defend herself like that, or if she played the shy, vulnerable human for him. Derek couldn't really see it. He knew what sharp teeth Lydia had, all werewolf puns aside, and she could hold her own within the pack. If not for the thousandth time since she left, he thought that she belonged in Beacon Hills.

"You know, one of these days your face is going to get stuck like that," Talia appeared at his shoulder and he tried his best not to glower at his mother. "You look so much like your father when you make that face. Like you're trying not to scowl."

Derek swallowed around the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. It wasn't that his mother didn't like to talk about his father, but after what had happened to Lincoln Hale, Talia was hesitant to dredge up memories, good or bad. He'd often found her sitting by the roses that Laura had planted over where they'd buried him, and he was pretty sure that she would still talk to him as if he were alive. He wondered if she'd ever really coped with his murder.

"She's doing well." Derek said, dragging his mother's attention off of his face that reminded her of his father and onto Lydia, who was blocking almost every move Isaac made.

Talia smiled slightly. "You trained her well, Isaac too."

"Okay, so what do you really need to talk to me about? Because I recognize your small talk tactic." He said, and she gestured for him to follow her into the house.

Lying on the kitchen table was what looked to be a newspaper article. Talia picked it up and handed it to him, her face suddenly a grim mask. Something was wrong. Reading over it, he grit his teeth. This article wasn't supposed to exist. The headline read "TEEN MIRACULOUSLY SURVIVES WOLF ATTACK AT PROM" in bold letters, Lydia's senior picture and a grainy photo of Derek carrying Lydia to his car that night. He thought that Talia had stopped this from being released, because she'd told him that she'd threatened the reporter who'd tried to publish the article. It wasn't from the Beacon Hills newspaper, though; instead of the header there was Talia's name, as well as a man named Jordan Parrish. There was also supposed to be another page, one that Derek assumed went to this Jordan person. 

"Do you know who Jordan Parrish is?" Talia wondered, but Derek thought she might already know. The name meant nothing to him, but then he realized. Lydia's boyfriend in Los Angeles.

"Fuck." Derek growled.

Talia handed him a photo. "I don't know if he got the article yet, but if he did we have to handle it."

In the photo, Lydia was walking beside Jordan, her arm looped through his, and she was smiling at something he was saying. He couldn't help but think that Lydia used to look at him like that. He looked up at his mother in disbelief.

"You've been keeping tabs on her? What the hell, mom? What happened to total freedom as long as you don't leave the fucking state?" He had never thought to talk back to her like that, but she had made Lydia that promise.

"I had Alan take it and he only took the one. I just wanted to make sure that she was safe." Talia argued.

Derek snorted. "You wanted to make sure that she was staying put like you told her, you mean."

"Enough! I thought that you wanted her here, Derek. What the hell is with all of this hostility all of a sudden?"

Derek didn't really know. Sure, he wanted Lydia there, but he could also see that actually being there made Lydia a little unhappy. He understood. She'd had her life ripped out from under her by Peter and had essentially been forced to join the pack because she was special. He wanted her there, but not at the expense of her happiness.

"Look, I know that you're still in love with her--"

"Mom, stop it." Derek was not about to have this conversation. Not with Lydia probably in hearing distance.

"No, I will not stop it," Talia stepped forward and grabbed Derek by his chin, forcing him to look at her. "You are my only son and I love you. I hate to see you hurting like this, and don't think to tell me you're not. You know as well as I do that as soon as this Omega is dead, she's gone--"

The back door opened and Lydia stepped in, looking back and forth between the two of them. There was no mistake that she'd overheard everything. Derek expected her to start yelling, to insist that she was leaving now. But she didn't.

"Jordan hasn't gotten the article yet, he would have told me when he called this morning," Talia started to speak, but Lydia put up her hand and her mouth snapped shut. "He's working all morning, and he only checks the mail when he gets home. Why don't you just have Deaton go and get the article from the mail, since he obviously knows where I live? Because the alternative of murdering a man I care about because he finds out about the existence of werewolves isn't appealing to me."

She walked out of the kitchen before either of them could say anything, and Talia sighed heavily, dragging her hands through her hair. Derek was surprised to see that there were suddenly tears in his mother's eyes.

"I asked for the picture because in case you forgot, my psychotic brother wanted that girl dead and there been no sign of him since that night. He didn't want to turn her, Derek. He wanted her dead because she saw him." She said, swiping at her eyes.

"Give Deaton a call, mom. Have him get that article." Derek turned and walked out the back door without waiting to see what she was going to say.

Laura was outside, sitting in one of the lounge chairs and watching Boyd and Scott wrestle around like they were still teenagers. She looked up at him as he dropped down beside her, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly.

"If you’re about to tell me she means well, I might have to scream.” He muttered beneath his hand. Laura put up both hands in surrender.

“I won’t say it.” She promised, but he knew that she wanted to. And she was probably right. Talia hadn’t done what she’d did out of spite. She cared about all of them, and just wanted what was best for them.

Stiles came out the sliding glass door, tripping over the rug, and Derek rolled his eyes. But he had that look on his face, the one that said he’d found something and he couldn’t wait to tell everyone.

“I went to get the tickets for the rave like Talia asked. They are grossly overpriced by the way, seventy five dollars for two tickets. For a tiny little rave in Beacon Hills, really?”

“Stiles, focus!” Jackson spoke up before Derek could.

“The Omega was there.” Stiles said, and he suddenly had everyone’s attention.

“You’re sure?” Scott asked. Stiles squinted at him, the way he always did when Scott asked him a question that had an obvious answer.

“Yes, I’m sure. It was the same scent from the woods and the apartment, and he reeked.”

The rave was an excellent opportunity for the Omega to pick off new victims. Derek knew that Talia wanted him dead, but they needed to get him back to the house so they could question him and find out who’d bitten him. Before more Omegas started turning up and their territory got overrun.

“What did you do?” Derek asked, wanting to make sure Stiles hadn’t done anything stupid.

“I asked him if he was a homicidal werewolf, what do you think I did Derek? I got the tickets and I left. And before you ask, because I know you will, yes I masked my scent. I’m pretty sure he just thought I was another harmless human getting my tickets.”

“Well, what’s he look like?” Isaac asked impatiently.

Stiles huffed. “He’s got pointy ears and a tail.” Derek could tell he was getting frustrated with all of the questions, and being a smart ass had been his defense mechanism since he could talk.

“Was there anything specific? This is a good lead Stiles, better than we’ve had.” He said.

“Oh, you’re gonna recognize him. Just look for the guy with unimaginable amounts of hatred pouring off of him. No Alpha in their right mind would turn someone this angry, unless they knew exactly what they were doing. This guy is a ticking time bomb.”

That was better for them, honestly. Derek didn’t want a wolf who was in control of himself and who would predict whatever he and Lydia were going to plan on the way to the rave. He wanted this guy so hell bent on trying to keep a handle on himself he wouldn’t see them coming.

Lydia had never been to one of the raves in Beacon Hills; Jackson had tried to get her to go when they were dating, but she’d refused. In the end, he’d gone with Danny, whose boyfriend at the time tried ecstasy for the first time and nearly died. All the more reason to avoid them. But she was sitting in the passenger seat of Derek’s Camaro, sitting outside of the warehouse and watching people going in. She could feel the music vibrating in her chest, it was so loud. Her eyes drifted over to Derek. His face was tense as his eyes trailed over the humans, trying to spot anyone who looked suspicious.

“You’re not going in alone.” He said for the second time since she’d told him her plan.

Lydia flipped down the visor and opened the mirror to reapply her lipstick. “Yes, I am. You need to be out here for when he comes out. If we both go in, he could get by us.”

“Then someone else should have come with us.” Derek grit out.

“And then he would catch on to us,” She yanked on the door handle, and Derek reached over to grab her arm. “We don’t have time for this, Derek.”

Instead of arguing with her, he reached out and wiped a smudge of lipstick away from below her bottom lip with his thumb. Her breath caught in her throat at the gesture and she stared at him with wide eyes. She had to get out of the car, because her wolf still thought of him as her mate, and she was about five seconds away from just throwing herself into his arms. Slamming the door harder than she intended, she made her way towards the entrance of the warehouse, melting into the crowd of people easily. Her phone pinged in her pocket and she pulled it out to see that Jordan was calling. Lydia tapped ‘ignore’, before putting her phone away and glancing back over her shoulder. She could see Derek sitting in his car, watching her intently, and she turned and disappeared into the building. 

Bass pumped out of unseen speakers and colored strobe lights danced along the brick walls to the beat of the music. She didn’t sense anyone out of the ordinary as she slipped between throngs of sweaty gyrating bodies. The temperature in the room was at least thirty degrees warmer than outside due to the amount of people in close proximity to one another, and Lydia felt sweat slide down her spine beneath her light blue shirt. She wished she’d worn heels, if only to see a little better. Emotions pressed in all around her, but none of them were overwhelming anger. There was plenty of lust, happiness and jealously to go around, and Lydia held her breath for a moment as she made her way to the corner of the massive room.

Her phone went off a second time, and she glanced at it. It was a text message from Jordan, only three words: Can we talk? Lydia gnawed on her bottom lip, debating actually calling him back. But they would have plenty of time to talk once they got the Omega, and she turned her phone off. All of a sudden, she felt a wave of anger hit her from the middle of the dancing crowd. Lydia’s eyes scanned the faces she saw and they finally landed on him. The Omega was staring right at her, the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk. She realized that she recognized him from high school. He’d been on the paper, the photographer or something like that. She remembered that he was on the lacrosse team, but he never really played, he always had his camera in hand. And he knew that she knew.

There was no way that she would be able to get a text message out without him noticing, she had to get him outside. Taking a deep breath, she started walking towards him. People kept getting in her way and she pushed them aside and squeezed between the writhing bodies. By the time she reached where he’d been standing, he was gone. Lydia spun around, trying to spot him again, and she saw that he’d moved nearly across the room. She made her way back towards him, hoping that he wouldn’t be stupid enough to run again, because this time she was going to have to chase him. But he was waiting for her, that little smirk on his face still as she got closer.

“I have to say, this is a rare treat, meeting the only bitten female wolf.” He said, and Lydia glanced around to make sure no one overheard. But he’d been talking low enough for just her to hear.

“You’re not the first mutt I’ve met, sorry.” She said with a shrug, flicking her hair back out of her face.

He glared at her. “I bet you don’t even remember my name. But I remember yours, Lydia Martin.”

She wracked her brain, trying to put a name to his face. Maybe if she remembered it, he wouldn’t be so angry. It started with an M, that much she was certain of.

“Matt.” He looked pleased that she remembered, and he even bowed a little. Lydia curled her hands into fists. “Where’s your Alpha, Matt?”

His right eye twitched and she shifted her feet, wondering whether he was going to attack or run. She recognized the feral look in his eyes, she’d seen it in her own those first few days after she’d been bitten. She honestly couldn’t regret going back to Talia, not if being like Matt was what she would have had to look forward to.

“Now, where’s the fun in telling you that? I think a better question is why did you come here alone?” He asked.

She wanted to tell him that she didn’t come alone, but she didn’t need him running off on her yet. Maybe it wouldn’t be that hard to get him outside, where Derek was still waiting.

“Would you stop me if I tore apart every single person in this room, or would you help?” His voice was casual, like he was asking about the weather and not talking about committing yet another murder. 

Lydia actually growled at him, stomping forward and putting her hand to his chest. She shoved him back against the wall, her hand shifting. Matt’s eyes widened, almost in wonder.

“I am nothing like you.” She said angrily, and she knew if she’d looked in a mirror right then she would see that her eyes had turned gold. She breathed deep, able to get control of her wolf quickly. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Matt.

He began shifting beneath her touch. Her wolf had forced his to the surface. “What are you doing? Stop!” She hissed, eyes darting around. People were definitely going to notice a man turning into a wolf in front of them.

“I can’t! I don’t know how!” He ground out, his voice already becoming inhuman. He was going to shift and Lydia couldn’t stop him.

Grabbing him by the back of his coat, she hauled Matt through the crowd, shouting for people to get out of her way. There wasn’t enough time to get him outside to Derek. So she made a quick decision and shoved him through the first door that she saw, slamming it shut and slumping against it. She had to push all of her weight against it as he threw himself against the door repeatedly. Eventually his screams turned into all too familiar growls. And then Matt started tearing the door apart.

Derek was supposed to call Stiles the minute that there was any sign of trouble. And yet when the doors to the warehouse burst open and people ran out, screaming about a wolf, he left his cell phone on the seat without making a call. This was the very definition of trouble, but all Derek could think about was making sure that Lydia was okay. He didn’t see her in the crowd of people, and as he pushed past them to get into the building, he did a quick look around to make sure that no one was bleeding from any bites. So far everyone looked alright, and it only make things a little better.

“Lydia?” Shouting her name with an Omega prowling the building probably wasn’t the smartest move, but he had no problem with drawing its attention to him. “Lydia!”

“Matt, stop!” Lydia’s voice carried from the other side of a wall in the warehouse, and Derek started running again. In the back of his mind, he wondered how Lydia knew the Omega’s name.

He nearly tripped over a body on the floor, skidding to a halt in front of a teenage boy whose insides were ripped open just like Kara Simmons had been. His lifeless eyes stared up at Derek and he shuddered, leaning down to close them. Another group of kids came scrambling out of the back, running past him for the door. Derek went in the direction they’d just come from, and spotted Lydia right away. She was staring at something across the room, and though he couldn’t see the wolf, he knew it was there. He could smell it. If Lydia was trying to placate the wolf into coming with them willingly, she was doing a horrible job. He heard it growl, but he still couldn’t see it, still hiding in the shadows. Lydia hadn’t seen him yet, but he got as close as he could without her or the wolf noticing. He knew, and Lydia knew, that if she tried to run the wolf was going to lunge. And then her eyes caught him.

“Derek.” Lydia’s tone was warning, like she knew what he was about to do. He glanced at her, before moving and putting himself between Lydia and the Omega. “Don’t.”

The wolf snarled and Derek gave one of his own in return. The room was suddenly awash in red and blue, police lights outside. The wolf tensed, and Derek moved before it could, tackling Lydia. They collided with the floor and he waited for the attack, but it never came. Lydia lay beneath him, her breath stuttering out of her and her eyes narrowed. There was shouting, followed by gunshots. After a few moments, Derek finally moved, letting Lydia up off the floor.

“Hey you two,” They both spun around to see John standing there, gun still in hand. “We got him.”

Lydia’s mouth gaped open. “In what universe is it actually that easy?”

But it was just that easy. They were weaker in their wolf forms and Derek knew that John carried Wolfsbane bullets which could kill them just as easily as a normal bullet killed humans. Derek had learned that one the hard way, but he couldn’t think about that.

“We’ll meet you outside.” Lydia said and Derek looked at her questioningly. John only nodded his head and left, pulling out his phone as he went. Derek knew that Talia wouldn’t be happy that he didn’t call, but at least John would let her know what was going on.

“What are you doing?” He asked as Lydia started walking towards a hallway off to the left.

“We need to make sure everyone is out of here, and not bitten.” She turned on her heel and kept going. Derek knew if he didn’t go with her, she would just go on her own. He’d let John deal with the Omega.

They’d only made it halfway down the hallway when he smelled it, the all too familiar scent of human blood. Immediately he pulled Lydia behind him, ignoring the way she rolled her eyes at him. He paused at a door that was slightly ajar, and he heard Lydia suck in a breath behind him. Because whoever was in there smelled like the Omega, and the all too familiar scent that came from the bite, almost like fresh meat. When he pushed open the door the rest of the way, he saw the girl on the floor. Her dark eyes were wide with fear and there was a small pool of blood beneath her left leg.

“Dammit.” Lydia muttered, stepping around him and kneeling at the girl’s side.

Derek suddenly froze, because she reminded him of Paige. He would never forget finding her at the high school, her body rejecting the bite. He’d always thought that Peter had something to do with that as well, but he’d never been able to prove it. When Lydia came along, he’d been so scared that the same thing would happen to her, and yet he couldn’t force himself to let her go. She’d survived. This girl wasn’t going to be that lucky. Her skin had already started to turn a sickly gray color and the blood leaking from the bite wound was turning black. A sure sign of rejection.

“… Are you listening to me? Derek!” Lydia was calling to him, and he could see that she was trying to get the girl to her feet. He didn’t move to help.

“What’s your name?” Derek asked the girl, crouching down beside them. The girl had trouble focusing on him.

“E-Emily.” She gasped out, a shiver running through her.

“Derek, we need to get her to Talia.” Lydia whispered, and when Derek shook his head, her eyes widened. “What the hell—”

He gestured to the black blood. “It’s too late. If we move her, she’s just going to die anyways.”

She looked like she wanted to argue and maybe if she wasn’t rejecting the bite, he would have risked moving her. But she was going to die, and Lydia realized that.

“So what, we just leave her here to suffer?” She asked angrily, tears in her eyes.

Derek noticed that Emily’s eyelids had started to flutter, and closing his own eyes, he put his hand over her mouth and nose, cutting off her air. Lydia got up and walked out of the room, and he was glad. She didn’t need to watch him do this. The girl struggled weakly, her hand barely able to grasp his wrist to pull his hand away. He focused on her heartbeat, listening as it slowed and eventually stopped. Her hand slipped away and fell back into her lap lifelessly, and he let her go. Someone had left a coat on the desk behind her and he took it and draped it over her body. Her blood was on his hands, and he wiped them on the legs of his jeans as he got to his feet.

Lydia was standing in the hall, arms wrapped tightly around herself and her face streaked with tears. He didn’t even think about it, he walked up to her and hauled her into his personal space, pressing his mouth to hers desperately. Derek thought that she would shove him off, maybe even slap him, but she didn’t. Her fingers curled tightly into the fabric of his shirt beneath his jacket and he buried his hands in her hair, pulling her closer.

“Don’t go,” He breathed the words against her lips and she gaped up at him, trying to catch her breath. “Stay here, with me. Stay with the pack. Don’t go back to Los Angeles.”

He was begging, but he didn’t care. It was selfish, and he didn’t care about that either. He wanted her to stay. Lydia bit her bottom lip and he could feel the rejection coming, but someone cleared their throat. They broke apart and turned to see Melissa standing there. It had been the first time that Lydia had seen her since she’d gotten back to Beacon Hills, she’d been stuck working double shifts at the hospital. She let go of Derek and went over to her, wrapping her arms around her and hugging her tightly.

“John wanted me to make sure that everything was okay.” Melissa said, and the little smile on Lydia’s face fell away.

“A girl was bitten. She died.” Derek explained. Lydia’s gaze shot to him, but Melissa nodded gravely.

“I’ll get Jackson and Boyd to come take care of it,” Lydia nodded her head and walked out, leaving the two of them standing there. Melissa glanced at him curiously, before reaching out to squeeze his arm. “You okay? Because I’m pretty sure you were too busy to realize I walked in here five minutes ago.”

Derek smiled slightly. “I’ll be okay.”

“Well, I don’t need to be a werewolf to know that’s a blatant lie.”

Derek couldn’t help it, he laughed. Melissa had been in his life a long time, before when she was with Rafe and then when she married John. She’d been the one to take him to identify his father’s body when Talia couldn’t bear to do it, she delivered Cora. She was pack, the fact that she was human was irrelevant.

“Just pretend I told you the truth,” She narrowed her eyes at him, but finally nodded. “How long until the deputies start scouring the place?”

“John can keep them out long enough for Jackson and Boyd to move the girl. The other one, the male, he had no bites?” Melissa asked and Derek shook his head. The Omega had merely mauled him and ripped out his insides for fun, but he’d bit the girl with intention. He knew that Lydia and Derek would find her, knew what they would have to do. “You got him, Derek. It’s over.”

He knew that she was trying to reassure him, but it actually made him feel worse.

The sun rose the next morning and Lydia expected to feel excited to return to Los Angeles, expected to feel free, but she didn’t. All she could think about was the night before, and she wasn’t thinking about the girl who had died. She was thinking about Derek, and the fact that he had kissed her. More to the point, the fact that he’d kissed her and she hadn’t stopped him like she should have. If she was expecting to feel any remorse for it, it wasn’t there. And that was the worst part.

Her suitcase still sat unpacked on top of the desk that Derek had once given her, but she made no move to close it. She’d thought when the Omega was dead that she would just want to run out the door. But being around Derek and her pack, even for three days, had an effect on her. She opened the drawer on the desk and pulled out the small box that had sat untouched for a year. The ring that lay inside matched the one that Derek never took off. She’d left it behind when she’d gone, but now she slipped her finger through the cold metal, sliding it back onto her hand. It felt right to be there.

There was a photo in the drawer that had been beneath the ring box, and she picked it up and looked at it, feeling tears stinging her eyes. It had been taken the afternoon of Talia’s birthday party, and if she remembered right, Talia had made Peter take the photo so everyone else could be in it. She was gathered with the pack on the back porch, and she looked at herself in that photo, seventeen and happy and completely oblivious to the fact that she was surrounded by wolves. But if she knew then what she knew now, she still would have been there.

The bedroom door opened and Stiles stuck his head in. His eyes immediately fell to her suitcase, and the smile on his face faded. “Leaving so soon? The body isn’t even cold yet.”

“I need to go, Stiles,” She sat the picture up on the desk instead of back in the drawer. “I need to talk to Jordan.”

Stiles came into the room, pressing the door closed and leaning against it. He got that look on his face, the same one he’d had on his face when Derek brought her home after her two day romp in the woods. She tried to carefully avoid his gaze, but he kept staring.

“And tell him what? That you like to turn into a wolf and chase bunnies through the forest? Deaton said he got the article.”

Lydia slumped against the desk. “I’m not going to tell him that. He doesn’t need to be involved in this, especially since the consequence of knowing aren’t pretty. I need to let him know I’m coming back to Beacon Hills.”

“Dragging him into our messed up little word is only going to cause… problems…"He paused, tilting his head to the side, finally catching on to what she’d said. “Wait, what? You’re coming back to Beacon Hills?”

She gave him an impatient look, but before she could say the comment that was on the tip of her tongue, he was flinging his arms around her and hugging her hard enough to make her back pop. She smiled, hugging him back.

“We’re pregnant.” He blurted out suddenly and Lydia yanked back to look at him in confusion. “Laura and I, we’re gonna have a baby.”

Lydia couldn’t keep the smile off of her face. She had always loved the idea of Laura and Stiles together, and the fact that they were going to have a baby was amazing to hear. A baby in the pack was an amazing thing, or so Lydia had heard.

“I’m so happy for you two, seriously. Have you told the others yet?” Stiles shook his head and Lydia swatted at him. “Stiles!”

“We were waiting until after the Omega was dead, figured the good news would help. Laura’s still freaking out though.”

Lydia raised an eyebrow. “About?”

“The fact that the baby could be a boy.” Lydia knew what other packs did, but that part of pack law only applied to human mothers. Talia would never take Laura’s baby away, she would never take anyone’s baby away. She wasn’t that kind of Alpha.

“The worst thing that could happen if the baby was a boy is you give him your first name.” She said lightly. Stiles narrowed his eyes at her.

“You aren’t funny.”

Lydia grinned. “Oh, come on! You don’t want to name him Stan—” He slapped his hand over her mouth, glaring down at her. He always got so touchy when anyone brought up his first name. Mostly because none of them could pronounce it. Hell, he probably couldn’t pronounce it.

“I swear to god if that name ever comes out of your mouth, I’ll stop being your friend. Also, you can read Archaic Latin and you still can’t pronounce Polish? I think I’m ashamed of you.”

She smiled and pushed him away. Her cell phone buzzed on the nightstand and her smile faded, hesitant to pick it up. She knew that if she got on the phone with Jordan now, she wasn’t going to be able to talk to him face to face. And she wasn’t going to end things in a cell phone conversation.

Stiles glanced at the phone. “Do you need to get that?”

“No, I’ll talk to him when I get back to Los Angeles.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Is Derek home? I should probably talk to him before I go.”

“He’s at his place.” Stiles said, and Lydia looked at him in confusion.

“He's what?”

“He got his own place a few months after you left. Actually, he bought a whole building. You know that the Hale family is stupidly rich. He’s got a loft in town.” He explained, grabbing a pen and writing down directions to the building for her.

Lydia somehow managed to get out of the house, knowing that if she got stopped by Talia, her Alpha would probably turn it into an interrogation about her staying. She didn’t want anyone else to know that she’d be coming back to Beacon Hills, not until she talked to Jordan. Not until she talked to Derek.

She could honestly say that she’d never seen the building before that Derek lived in, maybe she hadn’t paid enough attention. It wasn’t that far from Derek’s shop, and she parked her car beside Derek’s Camaro, looking up at the building through her windshield. Apparently, he lived on the top floor and no one else lived there but him. Lydia was surprised that he’d managed to seclude himself from his pack like this, not that there was anything wrong with him staying close to Talia, but she always thought that he would do just that.

In the elevator, Lydia sent Jordan a text, letting him know that she would be home that night. Not waiting for a response, she shut the phone off and shoved it into her pocket as the elevator came to a halt. She opened the doors and stepped out, finding the large metal door to Derek’s loft sitting side wide open. She would bet anything that Stiles told Derek that she was on her way.

It was a nice place, a large space that Derek had filled with a dark grey sectional couch and a few pieces of handmade furniture. His bed was off to one side, and the small kitchen was off to the other, a spiral staircase tucked against the far wall. What got her attention were the windows that literally spanned the building, a small balcony that looked over Beacon Hills.

“Are you just going to stand there all day, or are you going to come in?” Derek came down the staircase and Lydia huffed in annoyance, stepping further into the loft after pushing the door closed behind her.

She dropped her purse on the couch, and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

“Did you come to say goodbye? You could have skipped that part, really.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I didn’t come to say goodbye, Derek. I came to talk.” She said, and he gave a humorless laugh.

“Talk about what? The Omega is dead, and you’re going back to Los Angeles to play house with a guy who will probably never accept you for what you are,” He got a beer out of the refrigerator and twisted off the top. “Good talk. See you the next time the pack needs you.”

His words stung, but he wasn’t wrong. She had come to Beacon Hills with the intention of cutting and running as soon as the Omega was taken care of. In reality, there was still so much the pack didn’t know, like who’d turned Matt or if whoever had turned him had turned more psychopaths and had intentions of coming after the Hale territory. There was a very high possibility that her pack was in danger, and it was just another reason to stay. She could admit to herself that the main reason to stay happened to be standing in front of her, infuriatingly stubborn as ever.

“Derek—” He cut Lydia off, slamming the beer bottle down on the counter hard enough to shatter it.

“No, you gave me your answer last night, did you? I asked you to stay and you said what?”

“I’m staying, Derek.”

But he didn’t seem to hear her at first, his eyes bleeding to wolf amber. “When the going gets tough, Lydia Martin gets… what, what?”

Lydia rolled her eyes skyward, before looking back at Derek. Without a word, she held up her hand and showed him that she’d put her ring back on. The shocked look on his face faded into something more familiar and warm, and she braced herself as he came around the counter and grabbed onto her, crushing her body against his and pressing his mouth to hers. She felt her feet leave the floor and laughed against his mouth, winding her legs around his hips.

“I just need to talk to Jordan and then I’m going to come back, two days tops,” Derek backed up until his legs bumped against the couch and then he sat down with her in his lap, fingers skimming beneath the hem of her skirt. Reluctantly, she grabbed his wrists. “I’m going to talk to Jordan first.”

“Do you love him?” Derek asked, rubbing his cheek against hers. She knew what he was doing, and even if Jordan wouldn’t be able to smell Derek all over her, she rolled her eyes at his attempt to scent her.

“I love him, yes, but I’m not… it’s not the same as when I’m with you. It took you three days to work your way back under my skin, Derek Hale. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

“I was never out from underneath your skin, Lydia Martin.” He mocked her tone, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“I think I liked it when you didn’t have a sense of humor.” She muttered, and Derek just smiled at her in that way that made her want to giggle like some silly school girl. Instead, she bumped her forehead against his fondly.

“Do you want me to come with—”

He never got the chance to finish that sentence. The door to the loft imploded.

“C’mon Derek, rise and shine!” Someone was slapping his face, and he blinked his eyes open to find his uncle crouching over him. Peter Hale grinned and stood up. “So glad you could join us, nephew.”

Derek tried to sit up, and it took him a few tries. His head was pounding, and the front of his shirt was bloody, but the last thing he remembered was the door and then… nothing. He remembered that Lydia had been with him, and he sat up so fast his vision swam and he thought he was going to pass out again. She was sitting on the floor near his bed, and other than her eyes being red and swollen, she looked to be unharmed. And then he realized that they weren’t alone with Peter.

Two large wolves were prowling around his loft, and Derek didn’t recognize either of them. Neither he nor Lydia would have time to shift before one or both of them ripped their throats out while Peter watched.

“Are you okay?” He asked Lydia, but her eyes hadn’t left Peter and he got a sick feeling that she was going to do something reckless. “Lydia? Hey, look at me.”

She finally pulled her gaze away from Peter and looked at him. He could see it in her eyes that she wanted to get up and tear out Peter’s heart, but that was a bad idea. He shook his head, and he saw the despair in her eyes. Peter looked back and forth between the two of them, grinning like he’d won the lottery.

“I’m still in the room, children.” He reminded them, as if either of them could have forgotten.

“Yes, we’re very aware of the psychotic man in the room,” Lydia’s snark was poorly timed, and Peter’s eyes glittered dangerously as he crouched down in front of her, his hand grabbing at her throat. Derek snarled and tried to lunge at him, but one of the Omegas got between them and he fell back against the counter. “I’m not scared of you. I’m not that girl you left to die.”

Peter used his free hand to snap his fingers at the wolf currently keeping Derek away, and it turned and walked back out of sight. “But you are. Lydia Martin is not only beautiful, not only incredibly intelligent. She's Bitten.”

Lydia shoved at his hand and while his grip on her neck loosened, he didn’t let go. Derek tried to pull his cell phone out of his back pocket while Peter was distracted. The pack had developed a code to text to one another if they were in danger, something Stiles had come up with before Lydia was even in Derek’s life. Texting the code would bring his pack running.

“Really, I’m not the one to blame here. If you’d like to put blame on someone, why don’t you put it on Derek? He lied to you about our world, gave you a false sense of happiness, what have you. If he’d told you the truth, you’d have run away, and you’d probably be living some happy little existence with your pretty little boy in Los Angeles.”

Derek hated that he wasn’t wrong. If he’d just come clean with Lydia, if he’d never gotten involved with her, things would be different.

“Actually, maybe I should be thanking you for biting me, Peter,” Lydia looked past him towards Derek, smiling at him bravely. “I have my mate because of you.”

There was a laugh from the ruined doorway, familiar but not in a good way, and both Derek and Lydia looked over as Kate Argent made her way into the loft, swinging a small duffel bag by her side. She still carried the scars that Lydia had given her, jagged claw marks down the right side of her face and dipping beneath the collar of her leather jacket. Chris Argent had forgiven that little indiscretion, seeing as how Kate was trying to kill Lydia and Lydia was only defending herself, but it was what had driven Lydia from Beacon Hills in the first place. Peter didn’t seem at all surprised that she was there, letting go of Lydia and backing away until the two of them were standing side by side.

“This is a new low, even for you.” Derek muttered. 

Kate smirked. “I don’t know, he’s got his good qualities.”

“I was talking to him. He found someone more insane than him, if that’s possible.” Kate’s mouth twisted into some facsimile of a smile, before she stepped forward and kicked him swiftly in the ribs. Lydia jumped to her feet, but Peter just shoved her back down, the growls of the Omegas a warning in the air.

“You shouldn’t be rude, not when I’ve brought a present.” She hefted the bag, waving it around like it was in fact a gift. The smell of blood filled the air, thick and coppery, and Derek’s mouth watered unpleasantly. “Which one of you wants to open it?”

“Open it yourself, bitch.” Lydia spat, rubbing at her throat.

Kate dropped the bag on the floor, and it made a sickening thunk that made Derek’s stomach turn. He didn’t want to know what was in there, though he had a pretty good idea what it could be. Lydia’s face was neutrally blank, but her head was tilted towards the side, like she was listening for something. Derek couldn’t risk looking at his phone to see if Stiles had gotten his text, but if the pack was coming, they’d hear them loud and clear.

Peter clapped his hands together. “We’ll take questions before the show and tell.”

“Seriously, this is what you’re going to do? Monologue and drag this all out? Why don’t you just kill us and get it over with?” Derek wondered. He had a lot of questions for his uncle, but he didn’t really want to ask them. The answers weren’t important, not now.

“He’s got a point.” Kate said, glancing over at Peter, who let out a long suffering sigh like they were all personally offending him.

“I’ll ask, why are you doing this?” Lydia’s eyes met Derek’s again, and he knew that she was just trying to buy them more time. She glanced at the wolves prowling by the windows, watching them like they were just waiting to get whatever scraps Peter left behind. “Other than the fact you’re bitter your pack cast you out.”

“Bitter?” Peter laughed humorously. “I was going to be the next Alpha, once Talia was gone, that was my right. I deserved that! After having to sit back and be a good little beta and watch Talia and Lincoln,” Derek growled in warning at the mention of his father’s name, and Kate’s eyebrow twitched up as she smirked and shrugged innocently. “They built up a strong pack, one that could have done great things if it weren’t for you.”

The comment was directed at Lydia, and Derek could see how she’d thrown a wrench into whatever plans Peter might have had. She was supposed to die, after all. But Talia never wanted him for Alpha, not really. He’d heard them the night that Peter told Talia about Lydia seeing him. She’d warned him off going after her, she’d given him a direct command. And he’d, like he usually did when it came to Talia’s commands, ignored it.

“But you’re not telling them the best part.” Kate said, rocking back on her heels.

Peter’s grin was sharp as his eyes began to change; not the golden yellow of the other Betas but the fiery red of an Alpha. Lydia gasped in shock. The only way to get an Alpha’s power was to inherit it within a pack, or to kill an Alpha and steal it. It was obvious that Peter had done the latter. The Omegas weren’t Omegas at all, they were his Betas.

“You stole an Alpha’s power and made yourself a pack of psychopaths to—”

“Take the Hale territory.” Lydia finished for him. Peter was going to try and wipe out the Hale pack and take Beacon Hills for himself. He wanted to start a war.

Derek heard it then, the sound of howls as the pack closed in on the loft, as well as the sound of Stiles’ Jeep and another vehicle. They were coming in human form and wolf form. The two wolves by the window perked up, growling in warning. Peter directed them out the door with a jerk of his head.

“Now before you get any ideas with the puppies being gone,” Kate unclipped the electrified baton from her side, opening it with a flick of her wrist. “You two sit still and be good, and maybe you’ll get out of this with your insides still on the inside. Not alive, but not eviscerated. That’s a good deal, trust me.”

“I should have ripped your throat out when I had the chance.” Lydia swore and Kate swiveled around to look at her.

“Oh honey, you shouldn’t make threats you can’t keep when someone is holding a weapon on you.” She said, her voice sickly sweet.

“And when Derek takes that weapon and breaks your wrist doing it, I’m going to rip your throat out.” Lydia promised, and Derek took the opportunity to throw himself at Kate, tackling her to the floor.

She tried to swipe at him with the baton, but grabbed her wrist and slammed her hand against the ground until she let go, the baton rolling out of her reach. Her nails clawed at his face, breaking the skin, but Derek didn’t feel the pain. He reared his arm back to hit her, but he was suddenly grabbed and flung across the room. His back collided with the brick wall, causing it to crumble beneath him, before he fell in a heap on the floor.

“My nephew, Talia’s good little soldier. If she’d told you to kill Lydia, would you have done it simply because she gave you an order?” Peter curled his fists into Derek’s shirt and hauled him up onto his feet, slamming him back against the wall. His eyes drifted past him to Lydia, who Kate had pinned to the wall, the baton very close to her face. “I think you would have.”

Derek could hear the sounds of his pack fighting outside, the sound of shoes pounding on the stairs. Stiles appeared in the doorway, baseball bat in hand because he wielded that thing almost as dangerously as his wolf, with Laura and Jackson and Boyd. Boyd and Jackson were in wolf form, muzzles pulled back in dangerous snarls.

“After we’re done here, I’m going to offer up the biggest I told you so ever,” Laura narrowed her eyes at Stiles, who merely shrugged and propped his bat on his shoulder. “Are we on time for the party?”

Lydia used the distraction to her advantage, snatching the baton from Kate’s hand and jamming it into her side. Kate screamed, convulsing and falling to the floor. It wasn’t enough to kill her, but it was enough to knock her out. Peter closed his eyes, cursing under his breath before letting go of Derek’s shirt.

“You think you’ve got this all figured out, don’t you? How many people do you think I’ve bitten, because Matt and those other two aren’t the only ones—”

Derek cut off his tirade by driving his fist into his uncle’s jaw, knocking him halfway across the room. Stiles whistled, and Laura elbowed him in the side, trying to hide the small indulgent smile on her face.

“You have always been a disgrace to this pack, Peter.” She said sadly, shaking her head. Peter tried to get up, but the massive gray wolf that was Boyd growled and put one of his paws on his chest, pushing him back down.

Derek knew that Peter probably had more Betas out there, that they were probably under orders to attack any member of the Hale pack, especially Talia, and try and take over the territory. But right then all he could think about was that they had Peter, and they had Kate, and he had no idea what they were supposed to do with them.

“Call Deaton and see if he can find somewhere to put these two, and the two Betas. They’re taken care of?” He wondered.

“They’re contained. Incapacitated. Whatever.” Stiles said.

“You could have just said yes.”

Lydia stepped over Kate’s unconscious body, pausing briefly beside Derek to press her forehead against his shoulder, before she looked at the bag on the floor. As she got closer to it, her forehead creased in confusion.

“Lydia, maybe you shouldn’t touch that.” Laura advised.

Peter laughed, coughing a little and wiping at the blood on the corner of his mouth. “No, let her open it. I’m going to enjoy the look on her face when she sees what’s inside.”

Fear suddenly spiked through Derek as he watched her crouch down to open the bag. “Lydia, don’t—”

She pulled open the zipper and screamed when she looked inside, falling back onto the floor and scrambling backwards. Stiles caught her and pulled her up to her feet, and she didn’t stop screaming, burying her face in his shirt. Derek looked closer, and saw Jordan Parrish’s head in the bag, his eyes glazed over and his mouth open in what had to be his final breath before someone cut off his head. The blood wasn’t fresh, but he couldn’t have been dead more than an hour or two.

Lydia suddenly wrenched away from Stiles and grabbed the baton, pressing it hard against Peter chest and holding it there. He convulsed as Kate had, screaming in agony. When Derek realized that she wasn’t going to let up, he grabbed her arms, pulling her back. She collapsed against his chest, the baton clattering to the floor, and her tears soaked through his shirt.

“We’ll take care of him, don’t worry.” Laura reassured. Stiles glanced at the two wolves who were watching Peter like he’d be their next meal.

“Watch these two. If she wakes up or he makes a wrong move, eat them,” Laura looked at Stiles disbelievingly, but his face was completely serious. “Let’s get Lydia and those mutts back to the house.”

Lydia clung to Derek the entire time as he walked her out of the loft, and he wanted to tell her everything was alright, but he didn’t want to lie.

Lydia hated lying; she hated that she sent Cora and Isaac to Los Angeles to get her things, she hated that she ignored Kira’s calls and eventually ditched her cell phone. She hated that Jordan was dead and she had to pretend that she knew nothing about it. And yet, she understand that she had to do it for the good of the pack. If Jordan’s death was discovered, it could bring people to Beacon Hills that they didn’t want. They hadn’t even told Chris Argent that his sister had been involved in anything.

She wasn’t the only one hiding back in Beacon Hills. Scott had moved back as well and begun working at Deaton’s clinic in town, and Allison was going to be moving to town soon so the two could be closer. Lydia had a feeling that Scott was going to tell her about the wolves. Lydia thought if any other human could run with the wolves, it was Allison Argent. She was fierce and strong and loyal, she could handle the news.

Isaac and Cora started taking online classes and moved their stuff out of their apartment in Palo Alto. Talia wasn’t taking any chances and Lydia had agreed; the whole pack was safer in Beacon Hills, where they could keep an eye on each other. They could keep themselves, their territory and each other intact.

Stiles and Laura announced the pregnancy to the pack, and Laura’s worries were quickly squashed when all her mother could do was cry and smile. When Stiles told John the name they’d thought of if the baby was a girl, Avery, the sheriff could do nothing but tear up himself because that was the name that would have been given to Stiles’ sister and it had also been Claudia Stilinski’s middle name. The boy’s name was still undecided because while they liked Derek, Cora and Laura’s father’s name, Lincoln Stilinski was a mouthful no one wanted.

The two Betas refused to give their names, and they, along with Kate and Peter, were put in a special section of Eichen House for supernatural creatures. Deaton had assured them that they were in a high security ward and there were no chances of them escaping. There had also been no signs of any other Betas or even Omegas showing their faces in the months to follow. Things almost settled down to something resembling normal.

And then Lydia woke up with a terrible feeling. Like someone had reached into her chest and yanked something out. She jerked upright in bed, now living at the loft with Derek, and looked around in confusion. Derek, who’d been coming out of the kitchen, was on his knees, his hand over his chest like he could psychically feel the same pain that she was. Getting up, she rushed over to him.

“What’s going on?” She asked. She’d never felt like this before. He looked up at her, and there were tears in his eyes.

“Someone’s dead,” Lydia’s eyes widened in panic, and she felt that twinge again. “Someone in the pack is dead.”

They scrambled to get dressed and broke the speed limit to get to the Hale house. There were cars everywhere, nothing unusual, but they were all haphazardly in the driveway. The headlights to Stiles’ jeep were still on. Lydia counted the cars as Derek slammed on the brakes.

“I don’t see Isaac’s car.” She whispered, her voice choked. When she opened the car door, she heard it, anguished wails coming from the back yard. She took off running, Derek close behind her.

The pack was crowded in the back yard, surrounding something. Cora was on her knees in the dirt in front of them. Stiles saw Lydia coming and tried to grab her to slow her down, but she slapped his hands away. She was almost past him when Boyd grabbed her around the waist and held her back. But she still saw.

Isaac’s body was propped up against a tree, his face a bloody mess. Whoever had left him there had made sure that the pack would find him there, he’d been posed. She clawed at Boyd’s hands until he finally let her go, a panicked noise escaping her throat as she hit her knees beside Cora’s sobbing form. The girl who didn’t really hold any love for her at all, other than the fact that they were pack, turned and buried her face in Lydia’s shoulder.

“What happened to him?” Derek asked as he knelt down next to Isaac’s body. If there was any familiar scent lingering on him, Lydia couldn’t smell it. All she could smell was the blood that was on him, and the salt of the tears both from Cora and the pack. “He didn’t go down without a fight.”

The middle finger of his left hand was missing, the ring he always wore that had been a Christmas present from Lydia a year after they’d been bitten gone along with it. His hands showed signs of putting up quite a defense, and yet someone had still caught him off guard enough to kill him.

Scott’s voice was clogged with tears when he finally spoke. “It feels like someone’s trying to rip my heart out of my chest.”

“Like when Lincoln died.” John said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Lydia understood. Losing a pack member wasn’t like losing family, it was an actual physical pain, like losing a limb. She had never experienced this before, no one in the pack had died since she’d been bitten. It hurt worse than any pain she’d ever felt in her life. She cradled Cora to her chest, feeling the young girl actually shaking hard enough to make her teeth snap together. It had to be a little worse for her, Isaac was her mate, and they’d been together since before Isaac had been bitten.

“I checked with Deaton. Kate and Peter are still where they should be. Someone else did this,” Talia hesitated, wrapping her arms around herself. “But Peter told Deaton something. He said ‘there are more pieces on the board’, I’m guessing that means he and Kate weren’t working on their own.”

“Deucalion. It has to be. We were never able to track him down. Chris hadn’t heard a peep from his pack and he found that weird.” Laura said.

“Then we hunt him down. We find him and his pack and we find out what they know. They don’t get to do this. No one gets to come into our territory and take one of our own. Not without a fight.”

Lydia knew what that meant. It meant that their pack was going to war, and they had to be ready.

She was ready.

**Author's Note:**

> You'll notice I never tell you _why_ Lydia left Beacon Hills, not really. That, my dears, is another story.  
>  and I am so sorry for killing Isaac omg


End file.
